Antoninianus of Tetricus I 270 - 273

Curator: Here we have an Antoninianus of Tetricus I, residing here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It looks like a chocolate coin someone forgot in their pocket and then ran through the wash! Seriously, it has this worn, almost dreamlike quality. Curator: It's fascinating, isn't it? Tetricus I, who, mind you, was both the artist and the subject of this coin. The state of preservation actually speaks volumes. Editor: Absolutely. See how the relief, though worn, emphasizes the rigid profile? And the metal itself, almost like a meditation on decay. I wonder about the lives it touched, eh? Curator: Precisely. It serves as a tangible link to a time of political instability and also personal ambition. It is a unique, deeply suggestive material relic. Editor: Yes! It makes you think, doesn't it? All that power and pretense, now just a little brown disc. Well, I am glad it landed here.