2.5 OZ 300 Y/O AFRICAN METAL CURRENCY (MANILLA) USED IN AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE

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2.5 OZ 300 Y/O AFRICAN METAL CURRENCY (MANILLA) USED IN AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE :
$13.50

SPOTTED DOG DESIGN

2.5 OZ EARLY PERIOD BRITISH Manilla Bracelet Shaped Metal Currency

BUY ONE ITEM, ANY ITEM, AND NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT PAY SHIPPING FOR EVERY ADDITIONAL ITEM YOU BUY, BUT YOU GET $3 REFUND FOR EACH ADDITIONAL ITEM

Title

Old Manilla Metal Currency Bracelet Shaped African

Dimensions

Approximately 2X2\" exterior diameter

Gap

1”

WEIGHT

2.5 OZ

Materials

Alloy

Overall Condition

GOOD

Made In

Most Likely British

Damage/Repair

MINIMAL OXIDATION AND WEAR

TODAY IN AMERICA, OPEN SOUTHERN RACISM AND CALLS FOR INDEPENDENCE FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ARE AGAIN ON THE INCREASE, THIS MONEY USED IN THE SLAVE TRADE IS A GRIM REMINDER OF THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST. HOW CAN WE FORGET AMERICA WHEN IT WAS LEGAL TO BUY AND SELL PEOPLE?

Additional Information

These currencies were used throughout Nigeria and neighboring countries for more than 300 years. They were widely used from the sixteenth century, (1500’s) when the Portuguese began casting huge quantities and used them to trade in West Africa. This Manilla is probably a later British made Manilla from the 17th or 18th century.

Although Gold was the primary and aoffering merchandise sought by the Portuguese, by the early 16th century they were participating in the slave trade. Manillas became the principal money of this trade. By the end of the 1500s the Portuguese had been shouldered aside by the British, French, and Dutch, all of whom had labor-intensive plantations in the West Indies, and later by the Americans whose southern states were tied to a cotton economy. A typical voyage took manillas and utilitarian brass objects such as pans and basins to West Africa, then slaves to America, and cotton back to the mills of Europe.

Early in the 18th century (1700’s) Bristol, and then Birmingham, became the most significant European brass manufacturing cites. It is likely that most types of brass manillas were made there, including the \"middle period\" Nkobnkob-Onoudu whose weight apparently decreased over time, and the still lighter \"late period\" types such as Okpoho and those salvaged from the Duoro wreck of 1843. Among the late period types, specimen weights overlap type distinctions suggesting contemporary manufacture rather than a progression of types. The Popos, whose weight distribution places them at the transition point between Nkobnkob and Onoudu, were also made in Nantes, France, and possibly Birmingham as well. They are wider than the Birmingham types and have a gradual, rather than sudden, flare to the ends.

The Africans of each region had names for each variety of manilla, probably varying locally. They valued them differently, and were notoriously particular about the types they would accept. The price of a slave, expressed in manillas, varied considerably according to time, place, and the specific type of manilla offered. Internally, manillas were the first true general-purpose currency known in west Africa, being used for ordinary market purchases, bride price, payment of fines, compensation of diviners, and for the needs of the next world, as burial money. Cowrie shells, imported from Melanesia and valued at a small fraction of a manilla, were used for small purchases. In regions outside coastal west Africa and the Niger river a variety of other currencies, such as bracelets of more complex native design, iron units often derived from tools, copper rods, themselves often bent into bracelets, and the well-known Handa (Katanga cross) all served as special-purpose monies.

As the slave trade wound down in the 19th century (1800’s) so did manilla production, which was already becoming unprofitable. By the 1890s their use in the export economy centered around the palm-oil trade. Although manillas were legal tender, they floated against British and French West African currencies and the palm-oil trading companies manipulated their value to advantage during the market season. Probably for this reason the British undertook a major recall dubbed \"operation manilla\" in 1948 to replace them with British West African currency at a rate of 3 Pence for the commonest type. The campaign was largely successful and over 32 million pieces were bought up and resold as scrap. The manilla, a lingering reminder of the slave trade, ceased to be legal tender .

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JUST LET ME KNOW, OR CHECK “ITEM NOT RECEIVED” ON , AND THERE ARE STEPS WE WALK THROUGH TO FIND IT. ALTHOUGH MY POST OFFICE WILL ON OCCASION NOT SCAN THE TRACKING NUMBER, OR LOSE THE ITEM, I WILL TAKE THE HIT FOR THOSE. FOR INTERNATIONAL BUYERS, I WILL REFUND AMOUNT FOR LOST ITEMS UP TO THE POINT THE TRACKING SHOWS THEY LEAVE THE COUNTRY, THEN YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PACKAGE AFTER THAT. IF YOU LIVE IN A COUNTRY LIKE INDONESIA OR ANY OF THE AFRICAN COUNTRIES WHERE NO PACKAGES ARE EVER DELIVERED AND ARE STOLEN OR LOST, I’M NOT GOING TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU COUNTRY’S PROBLEMS, AND YOU MIGHT WANT TO THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU ORDER SOMETHING. I WILL PAY FOR RETURNS THOUGH, BECAUSE I’M JUST THAT KIND OF GUY.

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