Four Silver Spiral Currency Units

The auction house catalogued this lot as African tribal currency — “Mitako” or “Mitaco” silver spirals of European manufacture from the Stanley-Pool area of Congo-Brazzaville, in the Gabon region. Jhonn Thomassen identifies the pieces instead as Mesopotamian proto-currency: silver spirals struck to precise weights corresponding to one shekel, a half shekel and so on. The lot is catalogued here under that identification; the house's original attribution is recorded above rather than discarded. See here for similar coil money in the collection of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago. Photograph: NBJ Art Gallery.

VAuctions · 2026