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Shell money was usual tender in West Africa up to the mid-19th
century. There were large shipments of cowry shells to some of the
English ports for reshipment to the Slave Coast before the abolition
of the slave trade. It was also common in West Central Africa as the
currency of the Kingdom of Kongo (a central African kingdom, dating
back before the 1400s, and presently part of Angola), called nzimbu. The value of the cowry was much greater in West Africa than in the
regions from which the supply was obtained, resulting in an extremely
lucrative trade. The use of the cowry currency gradually spread inland
in Africa. Roundabout 1850 it was used in Kano, Kuka, Gando, and even
Timbuktu. (SACHMPM-Af:7)
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