[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Nitpicky point, but if it’s made of brass, how can it be “rusty”?

Anywise, how could Chinese coins reach West Africa that early? By trade, that’s how. Chinese coins used in East Africa, as people use them in further trade, they make their way west. While I have no qualms against Zheng He (except that’s he’s been claimed, at one point or another, to have discovered everything except methane oceans of Europa), this does not necessarily prove that he, or any other Chinese fleet, was there.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Oh, my bad. I thought the article had said “West” Africa...

[muawiyah]

When I was very young I used to play with the items in one of my great grandfather's knick knack boxes. There were large South Pacific shells in there, Clovis points in all kinds of sizes (actually common as dirt in that area), and rectangular stone Chinese coins with round holes in them.

OK, not what these guys found ~ round coins with square holes but you can't have everything.