KISSI PENNIES

These long, thick iron wires, usually between 12 and 15 inches long, were traded throughout Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. With the exception of Guinea, kissi pennies were still in use in the 1970s.

COPPER WIRE

In some areas of central Africa, unadorned copper and iron rods and wires served as currency until about 1907. Instead of being valued according to weight, these currencies were priced by length. In the Congo River region, these rods came to be used to set the price for goods, which could then be purchased for equivalent values in other currencies, whether beads, cloth or other items. Although these rods were to have a fixed length, they often lost length as they passed from hand to hand. In one area, the rods lost more than 20 inches in the span of about 24 years. Bundling tiny copper and brass wires provided an alternative form of exchange for small transactions.

The manillas in this exhibition include the smaller standard size and the so-called queen manilla. The larger specimens were considered a store of wealth. Small manillas would often be amassed and then taken to the blacksmith to be melted and re-formed into the larger size.

Some manillas were decorated with incised designs, or a second coil of metal was twisted around the shank. The quality of their ringing sound and the amount of "flash," or excess metal extruded at the joints of the mold, helped determine their value. Metalsmiths from the Kingdom of Benin, part of today's Nigeria, melted down the imported manillas and recast the metal into works of art.

The ends were flattened, with one of the ends shaped like a wing, and the wires were often bundled and twisted together to create higher values. They were called the coins with soul, and if a penny was broken, it could not circulate until repaired by a blacksmith, who would restore its "soul."

MANILLAS

Manillas were open bracelets, cast from copper and then brass and later still from iron. From the late 15th to the early 20th centuries, they circulated widely, especially along the West African equatorial coast, in various sizes and weights. Manillas were also cast in Birmingham, England, and traded as currency in West Africa.

INGOTS

Few sites in Africa yielded as large a supply of copper ore as the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While archaeologists believe that even unrefined lumps of copper were used as currency because of their standard size and value, the copper currency that possessed refined casting techniques and artistic value were the ingots shaped as crosses. By 1400 A.D. two distinctive types had developed. One was shaped like an H; the other was formed like an X.

The crosses were cast directly on the ground in many sizes. The typical size was about nine and a half inches across, with weights varying up to four pounds. Archaeologists also believe that the larger crosses were made first, followed by the smaller ones as the demands of commerce rose. The crosses were accepted as trade items throughout central Africa. They also served as a source of copper for re-use in jewelry as well as for other currency.

BRIDEWEALTH BLADE

The institution of bridewealth exists throughout Africa, having counterparts in the custom of the European dowry and, to a lesser extent, in prenuptial agreements. The institution does not refer to purchasing a wife, but to compensating the bride's family for the loss of its daughter's services, which will now benefit her new family. The typical scenario requires the groom, or the family of the groom, to provide gifts, or bride price, to the family of the bride. Many objects were acceptable as bridewealth, but among the most striking were the enormous iron blades of the Turumbu peoples. These spear blades span up to five feet long and typically weigh as much as four and a half pounds. The size of the blade determined its relative value. The blades served as a measure of wealth and were usually not converted into more utilitarian objects. If the marriage failed, the groom's family would attempt to reclaim the bridewealth.