Yoruba Forged Iron Gong Currency

Heavy, blunt and rust-colored. Once, it was also somebody's savings.

This gong currency is Yoruba, from Nigeria, West Africa, dating to the 20th century, made of forged iron. Before and alongside coins, Yoruba communities and their neighbors used iron in fixed shapes for payments that mattered, including marriage exchanges, and gongs themselves were struck in religious ceremonies. Here the form is a long, nearly straight column, domed at the top and curved at the foot, with a short stub for a spike. Orange and gray speckles cover the pitted surface, and faint raised lines run along the edges. Thirty-six inches high and 13.5 wide.

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