VIENNA — The face in splendid high relief shows a straight nose and sunken almond-shaped eyes. It depicts the head of the demigod Heracles clad in the skin of the mythological Nemean lion, which made him immune to mortal weapons. This is the obverse of a tetradrachm struck for Alexander the Great in Babylonia around 325-323 BCE, towards the end of his reign and life. The size of a quarter of the United States, it was worth four times a man’s daily wage and could probably be used to buy horses or weapons.
The head of Heracles in the silver coin, which was also used to pay mercenaries or pay homage to foreign powers, bears a striking resemblance to later depictions of Alexander. Whether or not it represents an apotheosis of the sovereign — historians still debate — it is a magnificent introduction to Around the world in 80 piecesan exhibition on view at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna until January 2024 that tells the stories of ancient gods, queens and everyone else.
The show is obviously inspired by the classic novel by Jules Verne Around the world in 80 days. In the fictional story, first published in French in 1872, circumnavigating the globe in just under three months was made possible by the opening of a new railway in India.
Olympias, Alexander’s mother, is the theme of the gallery’s first panel, which also features a bronze coin from the Molossian kingdom in what roughly corresponds to modern Albania, where she was a princess. It is also representative of a larger theme in an exhibit that is as much about numismatics as it is about women as makers of history. Of the 16 panels in the exhibit – each featuring five rare pieces illustrating themes of rulers and conflict; journey; and the arts – six are dedicated to women, including one about the Beatles with coins depicting Queen Elizabeth II as the ruler of the (still) widespread Commonwealth.
Interestingly, none of the pieces shown here depict heads. A curious one is the 1958 commemorative Canadian dollar, issued on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of British Columbia, showing on the reverse a large totem with mountains in the background. In 1964, three of these coins (plus another 25 cents) could have bought a ticket to the Beatles concert in Vancouver.
If only because it’s too close to our time, some visitors may spend less time in the Beatles section and choose to linger elsewhere in the lobby. Next to Olympias, who would have been doomed to obscurity without her son, is Cleopatra, perhaps the most famous queen in history. Those looking for his legendary profile might be disappointed by the rather worn one pictured in a bronze coin in this display. But a denarius – a standard Roman coin of the time – more than makes up for it with an intriguing crocodile displayed beneath the caption “AEGYPTO CAPTA” or “Egypt Captured”. The room is a source of numismatic mystery on the symbolism of the crocodile, whose scales are clearly visible on this coin minted in 28 BC. J.-C., two years after the suicide of Cleopatra.
The pieces presented in a section dedicated to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are intended to illustrate the difficulties of his independent career, touring Europe for concerts. He was paid in coins like the Louis d’or exhibited. These are the gold coins minted under Louis XVI, the last king of France who was guillotined in 1793, two years after Mozart died in Vienna in 1791 at the age of 35. Mozart owes part of his success to his enterprising father, who began seeking lucrative investments for his boy when he was just six years old, but family letters reveal complaints about losses suffered “by exchanges frequent currencies”.
Before the single currency, exchange rates in the European region were an issue that plagued another German-speaking traveler featured at the Kunsthistorisches exhibit. On his journey from Passau in southeastern Germany to Rome in 1204, high-ranking bishop Wolfger von Erla even took silver ingots with him, like the ones on display here, which he traded in Siena – at the time an independent city-state in Italy – for about 1,462 denarii. (At the time, a good pair of shoes in the Tuscan city cost 30 denarii.) His journey, at a time when travel was dangerous and undertaken only for purpose rather than leisure, paid off: Pope agreed to make him Patriarch of Aquileia.
Marco Polo could not miss this exhibition. The most famous traveler of all time traded a myriad of currencies as he crossed two continents from Venice, where he paid with the enlargedto China along the Silk Road, where he used the qian, coins whose distinctive square hole in the middle would represent the Earth (whereas a round shape generally symbolizes the sky). More immediately relevant in day-to-day transactions, the hole allowed coins to be threaded on laces or ribbons, making them easier to carry. China was also the first country to print paper money around 1000 CE.
Two of the pieces are distinguished by the ornate headgear and the headdresses of the figures molded into them. One shows King Ardashir III of the Sasanian Empire wearing an extraordinarily oversized winged and crenellated crown. This piece may have been used by the Chinese monk Xuanzang – the subject of one of the exhibits – when he arrived in the oasis town of Bamiyan in present-day Afghanistan and the site of two giant 6th-century Buddha statues. century destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Xuanzang was on a pilgrimage to India, the cradle of Buddhism.
The other coin with a singular head is a humble Roman sestertius, a quarter denarius, or enough money to buy two loaves of bread at the time. It features Empress Julia Domna, wife and mother of emperors, known for her grand but tragic life – one of her sons, the future Emperor Caracalla, murdered his brother in his mother’s arms, injuring her also. Her elaborate hairstyle is depicted in great detail on this piece, which inspired a fashion throughout the Roman Empire.
The wheels of history can turn on such stories, made by those who stamped their names on these metal coins, but also by the anonymous people who used them for bread and other transactions large and small, now forgotten. for a long time except for the parts they exchanged.
