Coin of Maurice Tiberius c. 584 - 585

This coin of Maurice Tiberius in Harvard is a copper alloy. I imagine the artisan holding the small disc, striking the metal over and over, to create the design. Look at the face, and imagine the hand of the artist moving along the metal’s surface. It feels like a conversation: they start, they stop, they make a mark, they respond to the mark. The artist seems confident, yet something has eroded. A painter has to trust the process, but sometimes it is hard. Like this coin, it is a constant conversation with the materials and the forms that emerge. I see a distorted M as well as other glyphs. It is impossible not to think of the way alphabets have influenced painting. Paul Klee, for instance. Maybe these coin makers felt themselves connected to the wider world of mark-making. That’s what’s interesting about art, it’s one long conversation.