![[Photo: counting board]](1578_japanesecountingboard.jpg)
India and Japan had these "counting boards". I think they made it easier to count 100 coins. I think you pushed the coins around the board, and they fell into little pits. There were 100 pits, so when all of them were full, you knew that you'd trapped 100 coins. Then you dumped them into a sack or something. This was probably faster than counting 1, 2, 3... But I'm just guessing.