TOPOKE IRON CURRENCY

Topoke Iron currency tokens are among the most compelling and virtuosic of blacksmiths’ designs. The shapes of precolonial currency tokens were often derived from blade forms of tools and weapons—so essential was the work accomplished by forged iron objects to local political economies that they were synonymous with value itself. These currency forms stood as payment in the exchanges that mattered most in life: marriage; litigation; ransom of battle captives; and the purchase of horses, enslaved persons, and other prized commodities.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Price:  €  550 to € 350,-