Ashanti Bronze Gold Weight

A little bronze sun with a gear-cut rim.

Ashanti metalworkers of Ghana, West Africa, cast this disc in bronze, dated in the record to the 19th century or earlier. Akan weights for measuring gold dust came in animal, figural and geometric forms. This round example has a notched edge like a cog, and the face is divided into blocks of ruled lines, with raised studs scattered between them. The surface is worn silvery in places and darker in the recesses.

Roughly four inches across. Prop it on a shelf and it reads as a medal for something unnamed.