Isaac Samuel

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Täʾammǝrä Maryam
18th century
Dabra Ḍaḥāy Mārqos Church, Ethiopia
HMML
#randomxt

Relief from the chapel of King Amanitenmemide, protected by the goddess Isis.

1st century BC.
Pyramid N17, Meroe, Sudan.
Neues Museum
#randomxt

Mopti, Mali
ca. 1948
-Quai Branly
#archivesxt

View of Duke Town, Calabar, Nigeria.
ca. 1890
-Quai Branly
#archivesxt

#medievalsky

The Mtambwe Mkuu hoard of silver coins, Pemba Island, Tanzania
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-...

copper coins from Great Zimbabwe, Kilwa, and Ibo (Mozambique), ca. 11th-14th century

The Ibo coins were made with copper from the Katanga copperbelt (Congo/Zambia)
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A city-state at the forest edge: The history of Bonduku, Cote D'ivoire, ca. 1600-1897. [Journal of African Cities: chapter 17] | Isaac Samuel Get more from Isaac Samuel on Patreon

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A city-state at the forest edge: The history of Bonduku, Cote D'ivoire, ca. 1600-1897.
[Journal of African Cities: chapter 17]
www.patreon.com/posts/139889...

A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Many of these currencies remained in circulation long after the imposition of colonial rule, surviving in informal trade and other social contexts, before they were ultimately displaced by modern fiat money.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-...

A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

On the East African coast, copper coins were pierced and transformed into jewelry, while others were left near important tombs by the relatives of the buried individuals
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

In the kingdoms of Kongo and Loango, luxury cloth was used as burial shrouds for the wealthy elites.
Cowries were used as bride wealth and in religious practices
Gold dust, copper bars, and imported brassware were melted down and fashioned into jewellery
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Being commodities, cloth, cowries, and glass beads were also fungible items, and once they left economic circles, they could acquire various social, ritual, and cultural meanings.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-...

A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

During the 19th century, Thalers were used as a unit of account in Kilwa, Lamu, Pemba, and Mombasa, whereas in Zanzibar, it was used as a means of exchange and as a store of value. The last Swahili coins were issued by Sultan Barghash in the 1880s
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Coining on the coast resurfaced sporadically in later periods, such as in Mombasa in the 17th-19th century, although foreign issues remained predominant.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-...

A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Many stayed in circulation long after they were issued, and some were found alongside cowrie shells and beads, indicating that use of multiple currencies in cities which didnt mint coins. Some copper coins were clipped for use in smaller transactions
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-...

A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

The coins did not conform to the conventions of Islamic coinage—they did not carry either date, mint, or a reference to the caliph.
They also didn't conform to a weight standard, but instead derived their value from the ways that the coins were used.

www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-...

A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

On the East African coast, coins of copper, silver, and gold were issued by the rulers of various city-states beginning at Shanga in the 9th century, and later at Pemba, Zanzibar, Kilwa, Mogadishu, Mombasa, and Lamu.
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

In Buganda, the value of virtually every trade item was expressed in terms of cowries, a hundred of which were tied on a string to form a unit known as the kiasa. Cloth was measured by the ‘dotti’, an imported term, and was in turn worth 2,000 cowries.
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Cowrie shells and glass beads appear more ubiquitously in the archaeological record of the Great Lakes region. Cloth, both local and imported, was used in a complementary relationship with cowries and glass beads, typically for larger purchases.
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Beyond the Limpopo River, copper currencies were used in regional trade in the kingdoms of South Africa, such as the Xhosa and Zulu, whose economies combined copper and iron currencies, with imported brass and glass beads for smaller transactions.
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Katanga copper was traded as far south as Botswana, where archeometallurgical analysis of copper artefacts found in the Tsodilo Hills was broadly consistent with the Copperbelt region
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Copper crosses and bars were a widespread currency system that originated in the copper belt of Katanga. Copper was produced in this region since the 4th–7th centuries CE and traded over large distances from the 9th to the 19th centuries
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-...

A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Additionally, three coins and a chain ornament dated to the 11th/12th century, which were cast using copper from the Katanga Copperbelt, were found in the coastal settlement of Ibo in the Quirimbas Archipelago of Mozambique
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

material from Great Zimbabwe and similar stone ruins included gold objects, copper currency crosses, as well as a 14th-century copper coin from Kilwa (2,500 km north in Tanzania), and a 15th-century tin ingot from Rooiberg (500 km south in South Africa)
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

In South-East Africa during the 16th century, the main currencies were gold dust and local cotton cloth known as Machira, which were used for larger transactions.
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Another currency in Central Africa was the luxury cloths of Kongo, which were often favourably compared to Italian velvet
The cloth could be packaged into different units of four, ten, twenty, forty, or a hundred, and valued against the Portuguese reis
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Cowries were measured in standard containers holding 40, 100, 250, 400, or 500 shells.
Larger units consisted of containers amounting to 1000 shells was called a funda, 10,000 was a lufuku, while a Kofu consisted of 20,000 cowrie shells.
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

In its export trade, the kingdom utilised a rather complex system of currency exchanges and credits when converting its currency values to Portuguese silver units.
A royal factor was stationed in Lisbon to handle other related money matters
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

Early descriptions of the kingdom of Kongo mention that traders used a general-purpose money, in the form of seashells called nzimbu, which were mined from the islands of Luanda
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A history of currencies and monetary systems in the southern half of Africa African monetary systems were characterized by the concurrent use of classical (metal) currencies and commodity currencies that fulfilled a variety of functions.

The expansion of currency use linked distant economies where these monies originated, such as the copper-producing regions of Katanga, the Gold-producing regions of Zimbabwe, and the ‘Textile Belt’ of central Africa
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