Vintage Boar's Tusk Bangle, Vanuatu

Vintage Boar's Tusk Bangle, Vanuatu. The full circle tusk has a inner diameter of 6.5cm.  

Whilst this tusk has been worn as a bangle, in the traditional cultures of Vanuatu, New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, tusks were a form of currency, and remain so, even to this day. 

'... breeding boars with circle tusks was literally like breeding money. Those circle tusks were not just used for decoration or jewellery but as money as well. And they longer they were, the bigger their worth was. They were used to make jewellery like necklaces, as decoration for sculptures and for certain rituals. You have to keep in mind that it takes several years until a boar has grown a circle tusk, and even more for a spiral tusk. During this whole time it needs extra food, and even more than a normal pig, which can also forage in the wild. But when the boar is finally killed and its tusks removed, they are worth a little fortune'  

'Markus Buhler'   https://bestiarium.kryptozoologie.net/artikel/how-vanuatuan-boars-grow-circle-tusks/

Condition: Some wear to the outer surface of the pointy end of the tusk.