PAPUA NEW GUINEA: toea arm shell ring, 67mm, conus shell ring with banana seed decorations, used for trade and bride payment on the Trobriand Islands, where it plays an imporant role in the kula ring, a traditional exchange ceremony, VF, ex Charles Opitz Collection. From Professor C. G. Seligman in "The Melanesians of British New Guinea " (1910, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, p.93) states: arm-shells, toea, as they are called by the Motu, are traded from the Port Moresby district westward to the Gulf of Papua. Among the Motu and Koita, near Port Moresby, they are highly valued, and nowadays attain very high prices, much more than is paid for the same article among the Massim." Due to its cultural significance, toea was adopted as the name of the currency of Papua New Guinea in 1975 (= 0.01 kina).
Estimate: USD 50 - 100