Kilindi were called Kissi pennies by the Europeans, after the Kissi tribe who used them. Kilindi worked just like our coins: With a single penny one could buy for smaller purchases, and for larger transactions one paid with bundles of 20 pennies. In the year of 1920 one paid 30 to 40 such bundles for a cow, while a male slave cost between 100 and 200 bundles. Thanks to their intrinsic value, however, and unlike our modern money, Kissi pennies could be melted down and turned into cutlasses, hoes, and other farming implements.