The Akan Gold Weights can be seen as classic representations of the depth and dimensions of African material culture. The weights are symbols of conventionalized reflections, each weight signifying specific meanings. The weights are also used in conjunction with a monetary system, mathematics, numbers, and ideograms. In a way they symbolize the empirical minds of the practitioners. The people in the Gulf of Guniea and its surroundings, long before the colonial period, had designed and operated a weight and monetary system. The great museums of Europe and the United States "own" a sizable amount of the weights. They are also found in African museums such as The Ifan Museum at Dakar, The Human Science Museum at Abidijan, and museums in Mali and Ghana.

To be precise, the weights were the creative works of the people of Cote d' Ivore, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, and Mali - all in West Africa. The weights are figures that represent proverbs, maxims, riddles, and hints to historic events. In essence, the weights are the sum total representations of the people's knowledge - a three dimensional thought and word rendering images and meanings.

In Akan's tradition, a decree is implemented through the apportionment of gold measured by a figurine designed or minted in conjunction with the decree.