It's happened in the ancient Near East as well. Coins were expensive to mint, and sometimes there simply weren't enough of them in circulation. So, counterfeits tended to be accepted as legitimate currency.
In fact, it was here on HN just about a month ago:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39606093
(Edit: There's a post farther down-thread that linked this well before I did. Please give that post an upvote instead of this one as I neglected to check first.)
"A total of 1000 coins strung together were referred to as a chuàn (串) or diào (吊) and were accepted by traders and merchants per string because counting the individual coins would cost too much time. Because the strings were often accepted without being checked for damaged coins and coins of inferior quality and copper alloys, these strings would eventually be accepted based on their nominal value rather than their weight; this system is comparable to that of a fiat currency."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_of_cash_coins_(currency...