Aztecs used cacao beans as currency — and counterfeited them
In pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, cacao beans were used as currency across multiple civilisations. An avocado cost 3 cacao beans; a turkey hen cost 100; a slave could be purchased for 400–500 beans. Cacao was so valuable it was counterfeited — merchants have been found who replaced the contents of cacao pods with clay or mud and passed them as real. The Spanish, after arriving in the 1520s, initially mocked chocolate as 'the drink of pigs', but within decades it was fashionable across European courts.
Chocolate is one of the most democratised indulgences in the modern world. Discovering that it was once a luxury currency — so valuable it was worth faking — makes its journey from sacred commodity to supermarket impulse buy feel like a cultural reversal.
“Aztecs used cacao beans as currency. An avocado cost 3 beans; a turkey cost 100. People counterfeited them with clay. The Spanish initially called chocolate 'the drink of pigs.' 🍫 #OddlyHuman”