Spondylus

The spondylus shell above was used in Ancient Chamorro time as currency/money.

The general term for Chamorro shell money was Alas. The Ancient Chamorro People used the red/orange spondylus shell and the turtle shell for money. The red/orange spondylus shell has many spikes on the top surface which were removed and cut into disks. The resulting disks were strung into necklaces (Cunningham, 1992).