| Comments | The name manilla is said to derive from the Spanish[1] for a 'bracelet' manilla, the Portuguese for 'hand-ring' manilha,[3] or after the Latin manus (hand) or from monilia, plural of 'monile (necklace).[4] They are usually horseshoe-shaped, with terminations that face each other and are roughly lozenge-shaped. The earliest use of manillas was in West Africa. As a means of exchange they originated in Calabar. Calabar was the chief city of the ancient southeast Nigerian coastal kingdom of that name. It was here in 1505 that a slave could be bought for 8–10 manillas, and an elephant’s tooth for one copper manila.[5] |