Coin of Ninika under Severus Alexander c. 222 - 235

Curator: This coin, issued under Severus Alexander from Ninika, whispers of a time long past. The bronze feels heavy with history, doesn’t it? Editor: It does! A ghostly presence, like something dug up from a dream. It makes me wonder, who touched this coin? What stories could it tell? Curator: As a piece of political propaganda, this coin served to disseminate ideas of imperial power and local identity. Minted far from Rome, it connected the distant emperor to the everyday lives of the people in Ninika. Editor: Power is such a strange, abstract thing. Here it is, rendered in metal, tiny and worn. One side shows a ruler's profile, the other some kind of horse-drawn chariot. It’s almost comical, this attempt to immortalize something so fleeting. Curator: Yet that's precisely its magic, isn't it? These images, though small, circulated widely. They reinforced ideas about leadership, civic life, and the relationship between the individual and the state. Editor: Absolutely. And what remains are these fragments—objects with the power to ignite our imaginations, reminding us that even the grandest empires eventually fade. It's both melancholic and strangely liberating.