Denarius of Caracalla c. 212

Curator: Before us is a Denarius of Caracalla, bearing the likeness of the emperor himself. Editor: Immediately, I’m struck by the wear and tear; you really get a sense of the handling, the life it lived in the economy. Curator: Absolutely. The imagery here—Caracalla’s portrait, the deities and symbols on the reverse—these were potent messages of power and divine favor, reproduced and distributed widely. Editor: And the silver itself—the material value was surely as important as any symbolic value; the labor in mining, refining, stamping… it’s all part of this object’s story. Curator: Indeed, a single coin speaks volumes. It’s a tangible link to the past, a vessel for understanding the emperor's projected image and the day-to-day material exchanges of the empire. Editor: Seeing it, you realize how much information and power could be packed into such a small object, one made to be so widely circulated.