Coin of Constantine VII c. 945 - 950

Curator: The 'Coin of Constantine VII', housed here at the Harvard Art Museums, intrigues me with its eroded surface, almost a palimpsest of power. Editor: It feels worn, handled, a testament to circulation—the very matter through which authority flowed. What's it made of? Curator: Its composition, its intrinsic form, speaks of more than mere currency. Look at the precise symmetry, even in decay, it is meant to project an image. Editor: The base metal betrays a grander process. Labor was involved in its extraction, refinement, stamping. What stories did those hands carry? Curator: Perhaps the coin’s weight in hand, the way light plays across the monarch’s effigy, served a symbolic function to those who held it. Editor: Absolutely, and to see the tool marks, to imagine the furnace, that’s where the real value lies – the echo of collective effort. Curator: It speaks volumes about the ruler’s image. Editor: And the people who gave it worth.