Ivory trade token

This is possibly an ivory trade token, 133 mm in diameter, and inscribed ‘John Pepper Brig Highfield, A Good Man’. The significance of trade tokens is yet to be established, but they were presumably used as pledges or receipts. This one, however, may be a bracelet identifying John Pepper, an enslaved member of the crew of the brig ‘Highfield’ as “a good man”.

With changing attitudes towards hunting and because African elephants are now in danger of extinction, the trade in ivory is now banned.

© National Museums Liverpool

Accession reference: National Museums Liverpool, Maritime Collection 4427M


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