Coin of Alexander the Great, Macedonia mint c. 336

Editor: Here we have a coin of Alexander the Great, struck at a Macedonian mint. Its worn surface speaks to me of its age. What strikes you about this object? Curator: I think of the labour involved in producing coinage – from mining the metals to die-engraving and striking. Coinage facilitated trade and economic control, and consider who benefited from that system, and whose labour went unacknowledged. Editor: That's an interesting perspective! I hadn’t considered the socio-economic implications of something so small. Curator: Exactly! Even seemingly insignificant objects like this coin can reveal so much about the material conditions of the past.