Dodecanummium of Herakleios, Carthage? 618 - 641

Editor: Here we have a Dodecanummium of Herakleios, potentially from Carthage, by Abd-al-Malik. It looks like a small, weathered coin. What strikes me is how something so small could have carried so much weight, literally and figuratively. What do you see in it? Curator: It’s a powerful symbol of the Umayyad dynasty’s cultural and economic strategies. Minting coins with modified Byzantine imagery served to legitimize their rule, embedding new power structures within existing visual languages. How might this coin challenge or reinforce existing power dynamics of the time? Editor: So, it’s less about the coin itself and more about what it represents in terms of cultural dominance? Curator: Precisely. It's about understanding how visual culture is weaponized in the negotiation of identity, power, and historical narratives. It makes me wonder how seemingly insignificant objects carry profound sociopolitical weight. Editor: I’ll definitely look at coins differently now!