AFRICA: brass bracelet, Opitz pg.280 (plate), 92mm, with ornate engraved markings from the Bidda tribe in Nigeria, VF, ex Charles Opitz Collection. The bracelet is the most common money form in Africa. It served the important monetary functions of portability and wealth display.Variants of this form were accepted virtually everywhere in Africa, with the result that today it is often difficult to know where a particular type originated or was used, and to what extent it was either money or jewelry. Purchased by the collector on a trip to Africa in 1974.
