Yoruba Forged Iron Gong Currency

Product ID: A1400-167
Yoruba Peoples
Nigeria, West Africa
20th C.
Forged Iron
14"W x 5.75"D x 37.75"H
$5,950.00

About this piece

Money used to require both hands.

This gong currency is Yoruba, from Nigeria, West Africa, 20th century, of forged iron. In many West African societies, iron worked into standard shapes served as a store of wealth and a medium of exchange, used for bride payments and large transactions, and forms like this could also have a ritual use. A long, shallow, trough-like blade, rounded at one end, narrows at the top into a thin spike. The surface is rough and rusty brown, with darker patches toward the base. Thirty-seven and three quarters inches high and 14 wide.

Try fitting your change into that.

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