Coin of Faustina I (?) c. 2th century

Curator: This corroded disc, residing at the Harvard Art Museums, is believed to be a "Coin of Faustina I." Editor: It looks like a portal to a very old story, doesn't it? Ancient breath caught in the metal, a smudge of history. Curator: Precisely! We see here a compelling example of how value, literally in this case, gets imprinted onto matter. Who produced it, and how? Who decided what images went onto it? What was the cultural context of its manufacture? Editor: The very substance of it speaks. It’s not just the power it once represented, but the labor, the mining, the very hands that shaped it. Did the artist recognize themselves as such, I wonder? Curator: An excellent question. This coin transcends its face value, doesn't it? It invites us to consider how even the smallest objects carry echoes of grand narratives and hidden lives. Editor: Absolutely. A tiny, tarnished window into a vast and intricate world.