In addition to manillas, such metal ingots were also important objects of exchange in foreign trade with Europe. However, they had less the character of a standardized currency and were also less common in intra-African trade. The forging, casting and chasing of copper alloys dates back to the mid-13th century in the Kingdom of Benin. This increased with the importation of large quantities of metal from Europe. In 1515, for example, a Portuguese ship imported 4,000 ingots into Benin and purchased slaves for them. This ingot was recovered from a sunken ship in the Elbe River in 1981, according to museum records. According to carved smelter marks, it was produced in the 16th century in a Hungarian mine owned by the Fugger trading house. The Fuggers financed a good part of the colonial and slave trade at that time. According to documents, this ingot was to be traded from Hamburg via Antwerp to Portugal. The African west coast of Upper Guinea is given as the destination, so a clear assignment to the Kingdom of Benin is not certain. Such ingots were often melted down in Benin and further processed into works of art. Since the king of Benin possessed some foreign trade monopolies, his wealth (and thus courtly art) experienced a boost as a result. Text: Dietmar Neitzke.