The area of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire is one of the great gold-producing regions of the world, and from roughly 1400 CE it was a primary producer of gold dust for much of Africa and Europe – Europeans called the region the Gold Coast and the British guinea coin was minted from gold obtained there. The Akan peoples who lived there made weights called abammuo or mrammou (among others, depending on which Akan language) for use when trading the dust. Originally geometric in form, by about 1700 they started to be cast in the shape of many different animals and objects.

Whale-like appearance notwithstanding this is a sankofa bird perched on a stepped pyramid. The sankofa is a symbol for learning from the past in Akan culture, which is why the bird has its head turned backwards as if looking behind it. Abammuo are generally small, and this one is 3.8 by 2.2 by 2.2 cm.

This image is copyright to the Smithsonian Institution, and used with permission. You can see the original on their website.

(Originally posted by me to Reddit a couple years ago)