Alliance Coin of Ephesus and Sardis under Commodus 177 - 192

Curator: How about we turn our attention to this artifact? It's the Alliance Coin of Ephesus and Sardis, crafted under the reign of Commodus. Editor: It has the look and feel of raw power, doesn't it? The crude weight of the metal, the blunt declaration. Curator: Absolutely. Coins like these weren't just currency; they were vehicles of propaganda, tangible symbols of imperial might. It shows the two cities as allies. Editor: And consider the labor: the mining, smelting, die-carving, striking. Each coin represents a network of human effort and resource extraction. I wonder about the artisans who made these, and the lives they led. Curator: It's fascinating to imagine the conversations this coin might have facilitated, the transactions, the stories it carried from hand to hand. A tiny vessel sailing through history. Editor: That's a lovely way to put it. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "pocket history". Curator: Indeed, it does.