Recently, we aquired the 1972 50FR W. African States FAO. This coin was mostly stumbled upon, as one of set that included a Uragay coin that we were looking for. The set that I obtained was Page 2.A of the FAO coin sets. The 50 Frank coin stands out among its peers, not just because of its condition, and the toning which was lost evenutally to the conservation by ANACS, but the truly unique design. While the reverse, with a 50 Fr value stated upon it with a series of local food crops (,peanuts, rice, cacao and coffee), the reverse was a stunning representation of statues of a very stylized sawfish that traditionally was used to weigh valuables (gold according to th Europeans, but that is contended in the literature). At first I thought it was a mask, but research lead me to understnad that this was not the case. The sawfish itself is a powerful cult figure in the Akan and Baoule people of West Africa. Fish mythology among the Akan and Baoule people of West Africa is old and deep. Much has been written on the statues and the myths of of the sawfish. They are covered in 1968 by Albert Ott, in his report preserved in the Historical Society of Ghana, Vol. 9 (1968), pp. 17-42 (26 pages). It is hard to understand the nature of weights used in comerce from the context of the West Africans. They had a highly proverbized langauge, and the familiar shape of a weigh, that of a mythological god at that like the sawfish, integrates itself into the very daily speach of the poeple of West Africa. This hightens the assocation of this coin to real value. http://smafathers.org/museum/ghana-weights-for-measuring-gold-dust/ Mythology involving fish and sawfish specifically can be explored to understand the importance of this symbolism to the peoples of West Africa. We have this quote: Sawfish were very central to the national and cultural identity of West African Cultures, and attached to concepts of fertility and prosperity. It is like the American Bald Eagle and the Turkey together. Yet the last sawfish native to West Africa was last seen about 2004, which is sad for for them, and worthy a whole other discussion (one done in academic literature). The coin was conserved by ANACS and returned a healthy MS66
Nice topical coin collectors club post a won fish was never clear to me on all my W. African States from all westies or some of them........
I rather like this gold one that is extremely rare. I was not aware of any controversy about the depicted sawfish as being/not being a weight for gold measurement.
It was disputed in the academic literature, essentally saying that was only a colonial adaptation to what was already an established desing and tool that was more broadly used. See Google Scholar for lots of articles on these objects.
Yes, I understand that bit. I guess I really meant that its possibly somewhat newer meaning on a coin would tend to tie it in I would think to the gold weight of later times, or at least is being represented as such.
While that is probably true, that doesn't preclude from the deeper meaning that this design wold have for many inhabitants of West Africa, some of whom might not feel all that connected to an economy based on money
I am just happy to see something on a coin that is not a despot and that has real cultural context to the society that it is produced for. My favorite of this set the the Uragay FAO of 1969. WONDERFUL abstract design.
So DID I at first. For all the world it looks like a mask. Then I did see a video of folks from West Africa doing folk dance, that was mythological that indeed involved a Sawfish custom. And what is weird about it, as the book that I annotated said, it is not just West Africa that has used sawfish as an important totem. It is also used in Papa New Guinea and even in South America. https://saveourseas.com/sawfish-cultural-significance/ https://saveourseasmagazine.com/sawfishes-in-traditional-tales/
I can't find the video that was specific to the Sawfish mythology with African Dance. One should never forget to save things thaat might be important later...
