Kissi Iron Penny Currency, Based

Hammered from iron, then stood on its foot like a thin dark flame.

This Kissi penny was made by the Kissi peoples of Sierra Leone in the 20th century. Currency rods like it traded in bundles and served in bride wealth and other significant transactions where Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia meet.

The flattened, roughly diamond-shaped top is known as the ear. The long shaft is twisted along much of its length before widening into a flared triangular blade with small spurs at each side. Dark, rusted, with a lively forged texture, twenty-one and a half inches tall on a black stand.

An ear on a stalk. Everyone listens to it.