---
title: Money Cowrie (Monetaria moneta)
scientific_name: Monetaria moneta
common_name: Money Cowrie
taxon: Cowries
published: 2026-08-11T10:33:39.566Z
updated: 2026-08-11T11:24:58.141Z
tags: Money Cowrie, Monetaria moneta, Cowries, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/cowries/money-cowrie
---

# Money Cowrie (*Monetaria moneta*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Cowries (*Cypraeidae*)
- **Size:** up to 4.6 cm
- **Depth:** 0-10 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Shallow reef flats and rubble, under stones by day
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- small yellow-white shell with a swollen back and thickened flared margins
- an irregular ring of darker color often visible on the back
- usually under a stone on a shallow reef flat
- shell to about 4.6 cm

A small, hard, yellow-white shell with a humped back and margins thickened into a flared rim, rarely more than 4 cm (1.6 in) long. It lives on shallow reef flats, grazing algae at night and spending the day wedged under a stone, which is where anyone looking for it should look.

This is the shell that was money. For centuries it circulated as currency across West Africa, South Asia and parts of China, shipped in barrels from the Indian Ocean and counted out by the thousand, and the trade in it was tied directly to the trade in people. Its scientific name records the fact: Monetaria, from the Latin for mint.

The living animal looks nothing like the polished object in a shop. Two flaps of mantle fold up over the shell from below and cover it completely, dark and papillate, laying down new shell material from the outside. Startle it with a torch and the mantle peels back in a second or two, which is the best thing to watch and the hardest to photograph.

## Also known as

- **English:** money cowrie
- **German:** Geldkauri, Geldschnecke
- **Dutch:** Geldkaurie
- **Japanese:** キイロダカラ
- **Russian:** Ципрея-монета

## Scientific synonyms

- *Cypraea annulifera* (Coen, 1949)
- *Cypraea barthelemyi* Bernardi, 1861
- *Cypraea circumvallata* (M. Schilder & F. A. Schilder, 1933)
- *Cypraea gibbosa* Schröter, 1804
- *Cypraea icterina* Lamarck, 1810
- *Cypraea mercatorium* (Rochebrune, 1884)
- *Cypraea moneta* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Cypraea moneta var. candida* Dautzenberg & Bouge, 1933
- *Cypraea monetacongo* Gmelin, 1791
- *Cypraea numisma* Röding, 1798
- *Cypraea subalata* (M. Schilder & F. A. Schilder, 1933)
- *Cypraea tuberculosa* Quoy & Gaimard, 1834
- *Erosaria moneta* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Monetaria (Monetaria) moneta* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Monetaria (Monetaria) moneta endua* W. R. Steadman & Cotton, 1943
- *Monetaria (Monetaria) moneta erua* W. R. Steadman & Cotton, 1943
- *Monetaria (Monetaria) moneta etolu* W. R. Steadman & Cotton, 1943
- *Monetaria britannica* F. A. Schilder, 1927
- *Monetaria chionella* Sulliotti, 1924
- *Monetaria endua* W. R. Steadman & Cotton, 1943
- *Monetaria erua* W. R. Steadman & Cotton, 1943
- *Monetaria ethnographica* Rochebrune, 1884
- *Monetaria ethnographica circumvallata* M. Schilder & F. A. Schilder, 1933
- *Monetaria etolu* W. R. Steadman & Cotton, 1943
- *Monetaria harrisi* Iredale, 1939

## Range

East African Coral Coast, New Zealand, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/cowries/money-cowrie)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*