Wedding trade bead necklace

Wedding beads from Czechoslovakia were used to trade as money in West Africa. They are called wedding beads because each time a guy dated a girl, he would bestow the girl he was courting with a glass bead like this. The more beads she gathered, the more desirable she'd become as a bride and hence considered good wedding material! In Ghana called Dondounsuele and worn by men at their wedding, often mixed with flat, curved Gopesegie (tiger claw) or flat, triangular beads.