Drachm of Seleucus IV c. 187

Curator: This is a Drachm of Seleucus IV, a silver coin currently held at the Harvard Art Museums, weighing a mere 4.19 grams. Editor: There's something about the way the metal has aged, almost like skin, you know? It feels strangely intimate for something meant to represent power. Curator: Intimacy and power weren't necessarily mutually exclusive in the Seleucid Empire. Currency was crucial for political imagery, the king's profile becoming synonymous with the state itself. Editor: I suppose. It's just... the imperfection of it all. The wear, the slight distortions. It's like a whisper of the past reminding us that even empires crumble. Does that make sense? Curator: It does. The wear humanizes what would otherwise be pure propaganda. Power, economics, and art all meet here, on this tiny, tarnished surface. Editor: Well said. I’ll never look at pocket change quite the same way again.