4081

Huge Diwarra Coil

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:NA
Huge Diwarra Coil
Lot: 4081
Header:
Title: Huge Diwarra Coil
Description: Nassa shells collected from mangrove swamps on the north coast of New Britain were buried for a year to improve their color, then exhumed, their backs broken, and strung on strips of rattan; these shells have no value other than as spear ornaments and money. This currency was called diwarra. A large coil of diwarra, called a loloi, containing 50 to 200 fathoms—about enough to buy a wife. See Opitz, pp. 131-32; this example illustrated in NNP edition, https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/541824?page=202, left, second from top.
Low Estimate: 500
High Estimate: 1000
Pedigree Collection: