Coin of Constans II c. 650 - 651

Curator: This is a coin of Constans II, currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums. The weight is approximately 4.39 grams. Editor: It feels like looking at whispers from a golden age; something so tactile and yet distant. Curator: Indeed, the coin's composition reveals a deliberate employment of iconography. Note the emperor's portrait and the cross, symbols of power and faith. Editor: The wear and tear, that patina, isn't it the poem of touch and exchange over centuries? You can almost feel the ghosts of transactions. Curator: Precisely, the coin transcends its monetary value, becoming a potent signifier of Byzantine authority and its ideological constructs. Editor: It's amazing how one object holds so much history in its tiny frame. It makes you wonder about the lives it has touched. Curator: An astute observation; it offers a unique lens through which we can view the complexities of a distant era. Editor: Right, so here's to small things holding big stories.