Gan Bracelet Currency with Snake Motif

Bracelet coils like a snake, ending in a flat patterned head.

This bracelet currency with snake motif is Gan, from Burkina Faso, West Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is copper. The Lobi and Gan peoples worked the snake motif into brass and copper art that served as decoration, protective amulets, adornment, shrine ornaments and metal currencies. Open spiral band in worn golden brown metal. One end swells into a long head with a crisscross diamond pattern and rounded studs, and the other curls into a small flat spiral. The surface is rubbed smooth in places. It is 4.5 inches wide, 4.25 deep and 4.5 high.

Coiled, patterned, and pleased with its own tail.