Talismans for Prosperity
A full granary, a busy shop, a household that can share with its guests: how coins, cats and shells came to carry the wish for abundance.
Prosperity is a wider wish than wealth. For most of history it meant a full granary, a busy market and a household that could share with its guests, and talismans for prosperity give that hope a shape you can hold.
Plenty, not just money
Many cultures pictured abundance as something overflowing. The Greeks and Romans had the , a horn of plenty spilling fruit and grain. In India the goddess Lakshmi is honoured as the bringer of fortune, and her image is welcomed into homes and shops at Diwali. In Japan, Daikoku with his mallet and bales of rice is one of the seven gods of good fortune.
What these images share is a sense that prosperity flows. It is earned through work, but it also has to be welcomed, kept and passed on. That is why prosperity charms are so often placed at thresholds and counters, where things come in and go out.
These talismans stand very close to luck. A coin, a cat or a shell sits happily on the same shelf as the charms on our page about good luck, and many people keep both side by side.
Prosperity, in almost every tradition, is something to be welcomed, kept and passed on.
Coins with a hole in the middle
Chinese lucky coins take their form from the round bronze coins with a square hole that became standard in China under the Qin dynasty. The round edge is often said to stand for heaven and the square hole for earth. Because real coins carried the idea of value, charm coins with auspicious words and pictures were cast alongside them from the Han dynasty onwards.
Today the coins are tied with red cord in groups of three or more, hung by the door, laid beneath a till or slipped into a wallet. In feng shui they are believed to encourage steady prosperity rather than sudden riches, which says a good deal about what people have always hoped for.
A cat at the counter
The Maneki-neko is the prosperity charm you are most likely to meet in daily life. This ceramic cat with a raised paw is first recorded in late Edo period Japan, including a woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige from 1852. Today it sits beside shop tills and restaurant doors across East Asia and around the world.
A raised left paw is often said to beckon customers and a raised right paw good fortune, although regions and makers differ. Gold cats are commonly linked with wealth and white ones with happiness, and many hold a , an old oval gold coin, painted with an extravagant sum.
Shells that once were money
The cowrie shell joins prosperity and life itself. For centuries cowries served as currency across West Africa, and the traveller Ibn Battuta recorded their use as money in the Mali Empire in 1352. To wear cowries was to wear something of real value.
In Yoruba, Akan and many other West African cultures, cowries decorate crowns, garments, masks and shrines, and they are associated with abundance and the continuity of family life. Across the African diaspora in the Americas, they remain a proud sign of heritage.
Related charms
China also has the three-legged money toad, often shown sitting on a pile of coins. Japan has the kumade, a decorated bamboo rake bought at autumn fairs to rake in good fortune for the year ahead. Both belong to the same cheerful family as the coins and the cat.
Keeping a prosperity charm
None of the traditions behind these charms treats them as a replacement for work, generosity and good sense. What a prosperity talisman offers is a daily reminder of the life you are building and the people you hope to share it with.
Place it where it will be seen: by the door, on a desk, near the till of a small shop. It also makes a warm present for someone opening a business or moving into a first home, and our gift guide has more ideas.
taliaris describes beliefs and customs; it makes no claim that a talisman has an effect.