Follis of the Emperor Maurice Tiberius, Constantinople 

This ancient Follis of the Emperor Maurice Tiberius was crafted in Constantinople—now Istanbul—through a process of die striking, which is a kind of sculptural impression. I can imagine the artisan who made this coin, maybe even the Emperor himself, carefully considering the weight and feel of the metal, thinking about how to immortalize a reign in such a small, dense object. Each strike of the die must have been so deliberate and forceful. Look at the low relief of the figures and inscriptions! There's something so tactile and grounding about how the designs rise from the coin's surface, bearing the mark of time. It’s so fascinating to me how the materiality of the coin itself speaks to the power it once represented, worn smooth, edges softened. Think of all the hands this coin might have passed through, all the transactions it facilitated, all the stories it silently witnessed. It's easy to imagine art from a bygone era as disconnected from our own, but objects like this coin remind us of the deep historical continuities between past and present.