CHINA: tea brick money, Hubei mi zhuan chá , made of powdered black tea, approximately 190mm x 240mm, EF. Due to the high value of tea in many parts of Asia, tea bricks were used as a form of currency throughout China, Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia. Tea bricks were in fact the preferred form of currency over metallic coins for the nomads of Mongolia and Siberia in the early 20th Century. The tea could not only be used as money and eaten as food in times of hunger but also brewed as allegedly beneficial medicine for treating coughs and colds. Until World War II, tea bricks were still used as a form of edible currency in Siberia. The average brick was valued at 1 Szechuan-Tibet rupee or 8 ga-den tangkas, and used for paying wages, buying provisions, and in ordinary trading. In the period 1975 to 1985 molds of this design were used in the Peoples Republic of China to produce more tea bricks such as this for sale as novelty items and as tea for drinking.
