Kota Bronze Currency, Gabon, Based

Money you could not misplace. You could barely lift it.

This piece of currency is Kota, from Gabon in Central Africa, made of bronze in the 20th century and shown on a base. Across much of Central Africa, heavy rings and collars of metal served as stores of wealth and as payment in marriage and trade. This one is a thick open ring with rounded ends. Large knobs swell around its outer edge, and a single pointed spike rises from the crown. The surface is dark, pitted and uneven. Fifteen and a half inches high and 13 wide.

No bank has ever offered a better paperweight.