Ashanti gold weights

These brass weights were never currency themselves — they were the instruments used to measure gold dust, which functioned as the actual medium of exchange across the Akan-speaking states. Each merchant and trader maintained a personal set, and disputes over weight discrepancies were common enough that the Asantehene's court maintained standardized reference weights against which others could be checked.

The casting method was lost-wax, inherited from earlier trans-Saharan trade contacts reaching back centuries before Ashanti political consolidation in the early 1700s. At 10g, this example falls within the heavier range associated with substantial commercial transactions rather than everyday market use.