Archeologists discovered a pot filled with what they thought were fossilized cocoa beans in Guatemala. A botanist identified them as criollo beans, the original type of cacao cultivated in Mesoamerica. It was not until they were sent to a lab for chemical analysis that it was discovered that they were made of clay.

Cocoa beans were used as currency in ancient Mesomamerica and there were counterfeiters back then too.

M.