_Mauilies, Manillas_ (Vol. vii., p. 533.).--W. H. S. will probably find
some of the information which he asks for in _Two Essays on the Ring-Money
of the Celtae_, which were read in the year 1837 to the members of the Royal
Irish Academy by Sir William Betham, and in some observations on these
essays which are to be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of that year.
During the years 1836, 1837, and 1838, there were made at Birmingham or the
neighbourhood, and exported from Liverpool to the river Bonney in Africa,
large quantities of _cast-iron_ rings, in imitation of the _copper_ rings
known as "Manillas" or "African ring-money," then made at Bristol. A vessel
from Liverpool, carrying out a considerable quantity of these cast-iron
rings, was wrecked on the coast of Ireland in the summer of 1836. A few of
them having fallen into the hands of Sir William Betham, he was led to
write the _Essays_ before mentioned. The making of these cast-iron rings
has been discontinued since the year 1838, in consequence of the natives of
Africa refusing to give anything in exchange for them. From inquiry which I
made in Birmingham in the year 1839, I learnt that more than 250 tons of
these cast-iron rings had been made in that town and neighbourhood in the
year 1838, for the African market. The captain of a vessel trading to
Africa informed me in the same year that the Black Despot, who then ruled
on the banks of the river Bonney, had threatened to mutilate, in a way
which I will not describe, any one who should be detected in landing these
counterfeit rings within his territories.