Bronze & copper

Akan / Asante goldweights from Ghana

Akan goldweights, (mrammou), are brass weights used as a measuring system by the Akan people of West Africa, particularly by the Asante people that used these for weighing gold dust which used to be currency. nowadays replaced by paper money and coins. The goldweights look like miniature models of everyday objects. However, this provided merchants with secure and fair-trade arrangements with one another. The status of a man increased significantly if he owned a complete set of weights. Complete small sets of weights were gifts to newly wedded men. This insured that he would be able to enter the merchant trade respectably and successfully. Beyond their practical application, the weights are miniature representations of West African culture items such as adinkra symbols, plants, animals and people.