Weight Akan

Piece certainly from the group I baulé according to the study by H.Abel. Weights greater than 80 o 90 grams were considered real weights and were only possessed by kings and notables. These pieces were used in the Baule territory until well into the century XX. They are all different, both in shape and in size or weight. All of them are decorated with different motifs on their surface. These motifs constitute a true code of signs, a language known only to the high initiated. Fr. Georges Niangoran Nbouah, q.e.p.d. left us an extensive three-volume treatise on the weights of weighing gold, certainly the first and most in-depth study on the subject.

Curiosity weighs rectangular. Its center is crossed by a line from which small lines start, quite irregular, that go to the edges, forming a kind of teeth or combs, that served to facilitate the calculation of the weight. On the opposite edge is raised a relief line that joins the barbed line by a small central line, forming a kind of long "H". Contrary to the series of short lines or spikes that have a normally straight surface in this case is oval. Its weight is of 34,5 grams and their measurements 4,2x1,5 cms.