Siglos of Croesus of Lydia, Sardis c. 560

Curator: Here we have a Siglos of Croesus of Lydia, Sardis, a fascinating piece held in the Harvard Art Museums, weighing a mere 5.35 grams. Editor: The coin's roughness immediately strikes me; it feels less like currency and more like a talisman, doesn't it? Curator: Indeed. The crude style of impression, featuring the confronting foreparts of a lion and a bull, seems deliberately bold. The intentionality of the die's design is striking. Editor: Absolutely. The lion and bull imagery speaks to themes of power, virility, and perhaps even the untamed forces of nature. It's loaded with symbolic weight! Curator: The composition, though, is what holds my attention—the overlapping forms, the interplay of positive and negative space... It's a study in miniature dynamism. Editor: These animal figures are more than decoration; they are emblems of an era, echoing in the collective memory even now. What stories these coins could tell! Curator: Seeing the basic forms that constitute the coin are actually quite stunning. Editor: It’s a humble artifact, but its raw symbolic power still resonates.