File:Manilla (FindID 249249).jpg

English: A ‘manilla’: a penannular copper alloy ring with flared terminals, used as currency with West African countries and associated with the slave trade.

The object was cast-in-one (a slight ridge around the item denotes that the casting took place in a bivalve mould) in accordance with West African tastes and to reflect the types of items the people were accustomed to (Anon.). These items, known as ‘manillas’ (the Portuguese word for bracelet), can vary in size and style and were treated as ingots. They were usually made in Europe to exchange for trade items including slaves, in countries such as Nigeria, and were commonly used from the late 15th century until the 19th century, although some were still used in the earlier half of the 20th century.

Manillas are also sometimes known as ‘bracelet money’ or ‘legband money’ and they mimic the bracelets worn to display wealth, although bracelets or legbands were used to store and display wealth in West Africa long before the local populations had any sea contact with Europeans (Seman, n.d.). Manillas are also depicted in portraits of Portuguese traders and denote their wealth.

They were usually melted down and recast when they reached Africa. This meant that manillas were regarded as currency rather than jewellery and led to mass production in standardised sizes for trading purposes (Anon.).

This manilla is likely to be of the type classified as ‘Late British’ (Seman, n.d.) and may have been made in Birmingham (ibid.; Reid, 2005).