Money

Museum number:

5-1825a-k

Permalink:

ark:/21549/hm21051825a@2dk

Alternate number:

D 12 (original number) and D12 (original number)

Accession number:

Acc.1383

Description:

Varieties of iron money - see card attached

Donor:

James W. Fernandez and University Appropriation

Collection place:

Gabon

Verbatim coll. place:

Africa; Gabon, Fang

Culture or time period:

Fang

Collector:

James W. Fernandez

Collection date:

1960

Materials:

Metal

Object type:

ethnography

Object class:

Iron money

Function:

7.4 Non-issued Media of Exchange, Symbolic Valuables, and Associated Containers

Accession date:

1961

Department:

Africa (except Ancient Egypt)

Comment:

The twenty some pieces of Fang iron money in the collection though all collected in northwestern Gabon and northeastern Spanish Guinea represent types from several different periods in the development of this currency and typical, according to Tessman (Vol II pg.212), of two different regions. The oldest type of iron currency represented is that ---5-1817---bundle of twenty to twenty five small lop-eared pieces. This probably dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. It was customary to bundle the pieces together following a digital scale--5-10-15-20. We can tentatively establish an evolution of this currency through numbers 5-1826 J, 5-1825E, 5-1825I, 5-1825 B, 5-1825 C to the three (see hole oven) pieces which represent the currency most recently in use (early twentieth century) 5-1928, 5-1928, 5-1822, and 5-1821. These most recent types were bundled together in groups of ten as in numbers 5-1819 and 5-1818. The bundle was called awom biken(ten irons). The more northern Pahouin, the Ntumu, the Bulu and ewondo, employed, in recent times, smaller forms often in the shape of a spearhead. numbers 5-1825 F, 5-1825, 5-1825 H, 5-1825A, and 5-1825 K (particularily the last two numbers) illustrate this type very well. These pieces of iron seem to have had about one quarter value of a full sized piece of ekele(for example 5-1928). For ceremonial occasions and more formal exchanges such as marriage, iron money was often made up to take more elaborate forms (see 5-1905). Larger denominations were also made (see 5-1820) which had the value of ten, one hundred or even a thousand bikele* number 5-1820 is a particularly interesting piece for though it is perfectly typical of what the Fang occasionally turned out it was probably made in Germany for tradding purposes, particularity the purchase of rubber and ivory, in the German Kameroons. The German did do this and the particular piece suggests such an origin becaouse of the quality of the iron. *number 5-1820, it appears, had the value of one hundred bikwele of 5-1928 size. projecting Tessmann's calculations into present day prices for food products and items of material culture, and presuming that the value of these standard items of fang exchange have remained constant we can only conclude that one ekwele---type 5-1928--was worth on the order of 4 to 5 cents or one present day 10 franc note. The older ekwele imately one cent. This is confirmed by the view of the informants who say that one ekwele was worth dole mbo (one dollar) by which they mean the ten franc note.

Legacy documentation: