Dinar of al-Muqtadir, Misr 919 - 920

Curator: Here we have a Dinar of al-Muqtadir, a gold coin that whispers stories of Misr, of Egypt long ago, now residing at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: Oh, what a glimmer! It’s so simple yet feels weighty, both in appearance and, I imagine, historically. All that precise engraving on such a small surface. Curator: Exactly! Think of the hands that shaped this, the mines from which the gold was pulled, the trade routes it traversed... It represents a whole system. Editor: It’s funny, isn't it? Something so functional becoming this delicate, almost ethereal object across time. It’s like holding a tiny piece of the sun, charged with meaning. Curator: Perhaps we’re both drawn to the alchemy of it all, from base elements transformed by labor and vision into something imbued with symbolic and monetary value. Editor: Absolutely. A testament to human ingenuity...and the stories we choose to tell ourselves, minted in gold.