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Objects used as currency were sometimes also in themselves desirable
objects, frequently used for body ornamentation. In west Africa
from the fourteenth century, copper bracelets were used as currency.
After the arrival of Portuguese and other European traders, great
numbers of these manillas (the Portuguese word for bracelet)
were produced in Europe to trade in west Africa. This iron manilla
was made in England, for trade with the Igbo people of Nigeria to
obtain palm oil and ivory. The ship carrying this manilla from England
to Africa was wrecked off the coast of Ireland in 1836.
View database record 1884.99.42
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