Corinthian Drachm, 480 B.C., from the Ancient Coins series (N180) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1888

This is a collector card produced by the Wm. S. Kimball & Co. featuring an image of a Corinthian Drachm from 480 B.C. As a trade card, it would have been included in packages of Kimball’s cigarettes. At first glance, this seems a simple reproduction, but let's consider how images and objects circulate. This coin, once currency in the ancient world, becomes a collectible item in nineteenth-century America. The imagery on the coin, a Pegasus and a geometric pattern, is divorced from its original context, and becomes a signifier of wealth and status for the collector. These cards were predominantly collected by white, middle-class men, reflecting the gendered nature of both collecting and smoking at the time. The circulation of these cards also speaks to the rise of consumer culture and global trade networks. What stories do these images carry, and how do they transform as they move through time and across cultures?