Over six hundred years ago the Akan started to make brass weights for weighing gold dust, the currency of their region of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Eventually they produced the most complete three dimentional inventory of any culture in hisitory. Virtually every animal, bird, fish, or object known to them became the subject of a miniture sculpture. Human figures are represented in the activities of everyday life and sacred or courtly rituals, together with pioneer casts from nature and a wealth of abstract and ornamental designs. The artist Tom Phillips has, in the last thirty years, built up the world's most comprehensive collection of these lively and imaginative artefacts and here presents a selection of more than five hundred chosen for their artistry and interest, accompanied by a full descriptive text about their history, styles, and mode of manufacture. The facsimile edition, in an edition of 300, from Phillips' original note book from the 1970's of his pen and ink drawings of Akan goldweights, coincides with the publication of "African Goldweights.' -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.