The Akan civilization that preceded modern Ghana was one of the wealthiest regions in Africa between the 3rd century-16th-century ce when it was a southern part of the realm of the massive Wagadu Empire (popularly known today as the Ancient Ghana Empire). The Akan region, was a premier source of the gold trade in West Africa that was considered by West Asians, North Africans, and Europeans as the best gold in the world.

The Akan civilization that preceded modern Ghana was one of the wealthiest regions in Africa between the 3rd century-16th-century ce when it was a southern part of the realm of the massive Wagadu Empire (popularly known today as the Ancient Ghana Empire).  The Akan region, was a premier source of the gold trade in West Africa that was considered by West Asians, North Africans, and Europeans as the best gold in the world.  

However, the role of the Akan as a gold trading kingdom predates this period, as the first Akan gold trading posts were established by merchants from Kush in the 8th-century bce.  In fact, the Akan name for the Supreme Being is Nyame, which is nothing more than an Akan pronunciation, Ny-Amen, of the Nile Supreme Being Amen.   

By the end of the 16th-century, the great Akan empire fragmented into pieces due to the collapse of the economy in West Africa that came from the destabilization of the Songhai Empire in 1591.  The increased European slave raiders in West Africa only heightened the fragmentation.  

However, in 1675 Osei Tutu became king of the Asante (one of the Akan states).  He reunited the Akan into a federation of states.  It was during his reign that the Akan military became mostly composed of riflemen.

The Guinea coin (a European term for West Africa that was a mispronunciation of the name "Ghana") was the name of the British gold coins used during the British Imperial Period (17th-19th centuries) because the gold came from West Africa, particularly from the "Gold Coast" which is now the nation of Ghana.