Serial Production Curator's Talk: Exploring Ancient Greek and Roman Coin Production

The exhibition Serial Production explores production and circulation of Ancient Greek and Roman coins and investigates the administrative, financial, and artistic considerations in their creation. The economic function of coinage necessitated millions of specimens, all of which needed to be readily recognizable and conform to a specific weight standard. Striking coins from engraved dies results in similar, but not identical objects; the process inevitably renders each coin unique, whether intended or not. In this light, coins as manufactured objects are neither originals nor copies, are unique but not treated uniquely, and are members of a series but also valued individually. This online talk with the exhibition curator Dr. Spencer Pope, Professor, Department of Classics at McMaster University includes contributions by Melissa Choloniuk and Cassius Di Maria, graduate students in the Department of Classics at McMaster University who are presently engaged with numismatic research for their M.A. theses. Serial Production is on view at McMaster Museum of Art April – December 2022. For more information visit: https://museum.mcmaster.ca/exhibition...