Cowrie Shells, Nigeria, 19th - 20th century

Cowrie shells were an important object of exchange in West Africa. They were largely sourced from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and brought to West Africa by the trans-Saharan trade as well as European merchants. Cowries were regularly used in low value transactions, but could also be assembled in great quantities - in the tens and hundreds of thousands - for major transactions. They circulated alongside other forms of money, such as coins, and were a central currency of the transatlantic slave trade. Currently not on view