Coin of Neocaesareia under Septimius Severus 193 - 211

Editor: Here we have a coin from Neocaesareia under Septimius Severus, currently housed at the Harvard Art Museums. It looks heavily corroded, almost like a tiny, ancient planet. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: It's that very sense of time, isn't it? Holding history in your hand, or seeing it displayed like this. I imagine the hands it passed through, the stories it could tell if copper could talk! I wonder, what did someone purchase with this coin? Editor: That’s a great thought! Maybe bread, or a small luxury. Curator: Precisely! It’s a connection to everyday life from centuries ago. And that verdigris, that green, is like a beautiful, slow-motion explosion of time. Editor: I hadn't thought of it like that, a slow-motion explosion. Now I see it completely differently!