kissi-penny

Kissi (or Kisi) penny made from a rough strip or rood of iron, twisted along the central section. One end characteristically ends in a bent T-shape, the other a flattened oval.

The Kissi penny was a form of currency used particularly in Sierra Leone and Liberia, though circulated along the whole coast of West Africa and Central Africa. Though iron was used as a trade good across the region, the Kissi penny is first recorded as being in circulation from 1880.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

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