A Bassa brass currency bracelet collected in Grand Bassa, Liberia, with carvings on the surface. Signs of ritual use and age, slightly oxidized patina. Bassa currency bracelets, often more accurately described as anklets because of their size and weight, belong to the wider tradition of copper-alloy currency objects used in parts of West Africa. Among the Bassa people of Liberia these heavy penannular forms were recognized as a type of money, functioning in major social and economic transactions. Their value lay partly in the intrinsic worth of copper alloy, which was relatively scarce and therefore significant, and partly in the ceremonial and social prestige associated with owning substantial quantities of metal. These objects were generally cast rather than wrought, resulting in thick, curved, open rings that could weigh several hundred grams or even more than a kilogram. Their form aligns them with the larger regional category of manilla currency, a horseshoe-like monetary form historically produced both locally and through European manufacture. European traders, including Portuguese, Dutch, and British merchants, produced large quantities of brass and copper bracelet-shaped currency that circulated widely in West Africa, and the Bassa forms reflect the entanglement of local craft traditions with the Atlantic trading world. Within Bassa society these anklets served as a store of wealth, a medium of exchange, and a marker of social standing. They could be involved in bride-price negotiations, major exchanges, inheritance, and displays of prosperity. Their monetary and symbolic functions were not sharply separated. As with many forms of cast metal currency in West Africa, meaning and function could shift depending on context, purpose, and ritual significance. The Bassa objects also sit within a broader Kru cultural environment in which ring-shaped cast metal forms have generated debate. Similar pieces from neighboring groups, such as the Kru or Grebo, have been interpreted as currency, ritual objects, amulets, or all three simultaneously. This ambiguity reminds us that monetary systems in many African societies operated through culturally specific logics that do not always align with modern distinctions between finance, symbolism, and adornment. Scholarship on Bassa currency pieces is relatively scarce. Much of what is known derives from museum exhibitions, private collections, and auction catalogues, with relatively little dedicated academic numismatic research. Even so, the objects stand as important evidence of the Bassa role within West African metalworking traditions and within the overlapping spheres of local and global economic history. References Gaouette and Frahm, Manilla Money Bracelets, Early Modern Africa and the Ties That Bind, American Journal of Undergraduate Research, 2024

Hamill Gallery, Bassa Currency Archives

Ashmolean Museum, A Brass Manilla from West Africa

Pitt Rivers Museum, Manilla or Penannular Bracelet Currency

Liberiapastandpresent.org, The Mystery of the Kru or Grebo Rings, Part II

Barnebys Auction Catalogue, Anklet Currency, Bassa, Liberia
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Wikipedia, Manilla (Money). MAZ07881