Yoruba Copper Torque Currency

Picture a horseshoe for a horse nobody would care to meet.

This torque currency is Yoruba, from Nigeria in West Africa, 20th century, in copper alloy. Its shape belongs to a family of heavy open rings once used across parts of the region to hold and move wealth, exchanged in trade and for major payments more than everyday purchases. The hoop is wide and grooved along its length, the surface gritty with brown and grey crust, with flecks of orange and green. Flanged disks stop each arm just before it tapers into a long, inward-curving tip. A black metal stand holds it upright. Twelve and three quarter inches in diameter, 3.75 deep.

Hard to spend quietly.