# Goldweight with a Geometric Design

- By: Asante (Ghana; Coastal West Africa)
- Date: 18th/19th century
- Medium: Copper alloy
- Classification: Decorative Arts
- Dimensions: 2 × 2 × 0.7 cm (3/4 × 3/4 × 1/4 in.)
- Culture: Ghana
- Credit line: Gift of the Britt Family Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/54024)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/67271776-08d2-0af1-2f32-3c4c31fcbf71/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This small, square gold weight consists of a pattern of four concentric semicircles on its face. It is probable that this weight was made sometime in the 18th or 19th centuries in light of its ornate “wax-thread” design, which was common during that period. Brass and copper weights were used for five centuries—between about 1400 and 1900—as a means to weigh gold mined by the Akan and traded first westward and then across the Sahara to North Africa, and later with the Portuguese and Dutch.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0