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Bar currency "Yarako penny" North Nigerian; Munshi tribe
| Issuer | |
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| Year | |
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| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 210 mm |
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| Obverse description | Anepigraphic. The piece presents a characteristic trilobate or Y-shaped form, hand-forged in iron, with three radiating arms meeting at a central junction. Two upper arms spread outward symmetrically in a broad arc, while the third arm extends downward as an elongated tapering shaft with a slightly twisted, textured surface. The entire surface is undecorated and bears natural oxidation patina consistent with age and use as a traditional currency object. |
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| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Mintage | ND |
| Additional information |
The Munshi — more properly the Tiv people of the Benue River valley — used iron bar currencies like this as both a medium of exchange and a unit of bridewealth calculation well into the twentieth century. British colonial administrators made repeated attempts to suppress indigenous currency systems in Northern Nigeria in favor of sterling coinage, but Tiv iron currencies persisted in rural markets largely because they served social obligations that coins could not replicate.
The term "yarako" refers specifically to this elongated bar form. Collected extensively by European traders and colonial officers from the 1900s onward, examples entered Western collections before systematic documentation began.