Gold weights

Museum number:
5-10550
Permalink:
ark:/21549/hm21050010550
Accession number:
Acc.4036
Description:
Goldweight, brass, lost wax cast; flat, square with a small protuberance on one side, design on top of partitioned into four squares with horizontal and vertical lines, 4.83 gm. weight called bodommo. The everyday businessman's weight for the amount of gold dust used as money in much of West Africa from the 1400s through the 1800s.
Donor:
Franklin H. Williams
Collection place:
Ghana
Verbatim coll. place:
Ghana; Ashanti
Culture or time period:
Ashanti
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Gold-weights
Function:
7.3 Weights, Measures, and Computing Devices
Accession date:
June 1985
Department:
Africa (except Ancient Egypt)
Images:
Hearst Museum object titled Gold weights, accession number 5-10550, described as Goldweight, brass, lost wax cast; flat, square with a small protuberance on one side, design on top of partitioned into four squares with horizontal and vertical lines, 4.83 gm. weight called bodommo. The everyday businessman's weight for the amount of gold dust used as money in much of West Africa from the 1400s through the 1800s.
Legacy documentation:
Documentation associated with Hearst Museum object titled Gold weights, accession number 5-10550, described as Goldweight, brass, lost wax cast; flat, square with a small protuberance on one side, design on top of partitioned into four squares with horizontal and vertical lines, 4.83 gm. weight called bodommo. The everyday businessman's weight for the amount of gold dust used as money in much of West Africa from the 1400s through the 1800s.

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