There are several very good auction houses in Dorset and Somerset and one of our favourite activities on a cold winter's day is to go to one, sit on the chairs which will later be auctioned, observe the fascinating auction scene and make bids for anything that we want to buy. Last Friday we went to Charterhouse Auctions in Sherborne, just five miles away and were interested to see that lot number 226 was a cardboard box full of "Liberian currency". We visited Liberia, West Africa, three times when our son Olly and his family were living and working there and their adopted daughter Libby was born in Liberia so lot 226 was of great interest to us. Fortunately Jenny's bid of £20 was higher than the others and the lot was ours. The "currency" consists of intricately made iron bars of differing lengths and values which were used in country areas for small transactions until as recently as 1964. The longer the bar, the more it was worth and for larger amounts several bars were welded together. The photos show the jumbled box of currency (72 pieces) and the currency sorted into size and value - they must have had big strong wallets and purses in those days! For further information on this currency (known as Kissi Money) and its use in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, see www.liberiapastandpresent.org/kissi.htm
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