While the first Akan goldweights were abstract in form, in the seventeenth century metalsmiths began representing people, animals and plants in their repertoires. As they were an element in financial transactions, such weights still conformed to standard measurements, but they also conveyed keen observations of the world.

The five weights shown here depict a seated woman with a tray and two goats; a kneeling man holding a fan; a man carrying a pot on his head and various other objects, such as a bundle of wood, in his arms; a kneeling woman working at a task and bearing a child on her back; and a man helping a child climb or reach into a tree. While these lively insights into daily life are fascinating in their own right, researchers have also connected them with Akan proverbs. For example, the woman with the child on her back could relate to the proverb ¿It is the hard-working woman who carries the child on her back and a load at the same time,¿ a statement of praise for the industrious worker.