Nigerian Bronze Crescent Currency

Heavy rings of metal once passed from hand to hand across this region, valued for the metal itself, a store of wealth and a medium of exchange.

This one is a crescent, worked in bronze and copper, from Nigeria, dating to the 17th or 18th century. A thick, rounded bar is bent into a near-closed horseshoe, its two ends cut flat and squared off. The surface has darkened to a deep brown-black, with lighter rubbed areas, small pits and a fine fissure along the top that speak to long handling.

Eight and a half inches across.

Heavier than it looks. Set it down gently.