Kissi Iron Penny Currency

Money in Sierra Leone did not always come folded. Sometimes it came as a length of iron, handed across at a wedding.

The Kissi called them pennies. This one is eighteen inches of 20th-century iron, flared at one end into a fan-like crossbar and drawn out to a needle-fine tip at the other. The shaft has a subtle, uneven twist and the soft undulations of the hammer. Rust brown. Dry. Matte.

Simple, yes. Then look at the line it draws. Stand it somewhere with room around it. Currency that never needed a wallet.