Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Seawan \Sea"wan\, Seawant \Sea"want\, n.
   The name used by the Algonquin Indians for the shell beads
   which passed among the Indians as money.

   Note: Seawan was of two kinds; wampum, white, and suckanhock,
         black or purple, -- the former having half the value of
         the latter. Many writers, however, use the terms seawan
         and wampum indiscriminately. --Bartlett.