Vittoriano
Rome in coin. Art and power in the history of the Eternal City stems from a core conviction: every complex human artifact is capable of telling the story of the world that produced it. When questioned through different and complementary perspectives—historical, economic, social, and artistic—that is, when interpreted in interdisciplinary terms, an object ceases to be a mere piece of material evidence and becomes a gateway to a much broader reality. It can speak of the people who conceived it, those who used it or simply saw and touched it, the institutions that regulated its production, and the values, beliefs, and aspirations of a society.
Like a sort of time machine, it can recreate its era in all its complexity. For this exhibition, among the various possible types of artifacts, the choice fell upon coinage. Few objects concentrate such a plurality of meanings and functions. Created to measure the value of goods and regulate trade, a coin is simultaneously the product and expression of a political, religious, or economic authority, which manifests itself through texts, numbers, or images depicted on one or both faces, and in rare cases, even on the edge. In this way, every coin bears the imprint of and makes visible power relations, hierarchies, affiliations, religious beliefs, collective aspirations, and forms of self-representation.
Furthermore, unlike many other artifacts, a coin is designed to circulate: it passes from hand to hand, crosses territories, transcends political and cultural borders, and reaches individuals from the most diverse social backgrounds. It is precisely this extraordinary capacity for dissemination that has made it, for over two millennia, one of the most effective communication tools developed by human societies. The images and inscriptions stamped on the metal, in addition to recording a reality, help construct it, legitimizing powers, consolidating identities, and transmitting cultural values and models.
Coinage therefore stands at the crossroads of multiple dimensions of human experience: economics and politics, art, religion, and visual communication. Every monetary issue records a specific configuration of these elements and reflects it in a synthesized, condensed, and instantly recognizable form. To question a coin is to question a world. This approach seems particularly valid for telling the story of long-enduring cities characterized by significant continuity in coinage, such as Florence, Paris, London, or Byzantium/Istanbul, to name just a few of the many possible examples. In this instance, the choice fell on Rome, paying tribute both to the extraordinary richness and stratification of its historical-cultural heritage, and to its long—indeed, exceptionally long—relationship with monetary production.
From the first specimens produced in the Republican era to the euro, coinage has accompanied the entire history of the city through political, institutional, and religious shifts of rare depth. Over the course of more than twenty-three centuries, Rome has been the capital of a monarchy, a republic, an empire, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Italian Republic; today, it is the capital of a state fully integrated into the European project. Each of these historical eras corresponds to different images, symbols, and messages entrusted to coins, which still preserve their memory today.
Observed in its long-term development, coinage thus offers a privileged perspective on the transformations of Rome and the way it has progressively defined and redefined its identity. The exhibition Rome in coin therefore uses these metal objects as interpretive keys to reconstruct several fundamental moments in the city's history. Through them, visitors are invited to connect with the men and women who inhabited it, the authorities that governed it, the ideas that guided its development, and the artistic and cultural forms through which it represented itself over time.
On its own, no single institution could have aspired to realize a project conceived in this way. For this reason, the exhibition is the result of a new and, in many respects, exceptional collaboration among three major state museums: Museo Nazionale Romano, Parco archeologico del Colosseo and VIVE - Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia. Under the aegis of the Department for the valorization of cultural heritage, the three institutions have built a unified itinerary, pooling scientific expertise, professional experience, planning capabilities, and collections. Most of the coins on display come from the Medagliere of Museo Nazionale Romano, one of the most important collections in the world, which has recently reopened to the public and is currently at the center of a major digitization project.
However, the spirit of collaboration extended far beyond the three promoting entities. Dozens of public and private institutions contributed to the realization of the exhibition, from other major state museums to the Vatican Museums, from the Capitoline Superintendency to civic museums such as those of Bologna or Como, as well as foundations, galleries, collectors, and artists. Seen all together, the more than one hundred and sixty works on loan bear concrete witness to the vitality of the Italian cultural system and the strength it can unleash when acting as a single network. Equally important was the contribution of the research and academic world.
The project was developed through constant dialogue with specialists from different disciplinary fields. Historians, archaeologists, numismatists, art historians, and scholars of material culture helped define and shape the itinerary, in the belief that only the intersection of different fields of knowledge can capture the complexity of these phenomena. The work of the scientific committee and the collaboration with the Italian Institute of Numismatics represent, from this perspective, essential components of the initiative. The exhibition is divided into three large chronological sections: Museo Nazionale Romano hosts the ancient world, Parco archeologico del Colosseo the Middle Ages and VIVE - Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia the modern and contemporary eras.
Although each section can be visited independently, all have been conceived as parts of an organic exhibition project capable of rendering the history of Rome through a unified narrative. This unity is guaranteed above all by a shared scientific and narrative approach. Together, the three sections are divided into twenty-five chapters dedicated to as many significant moments in the city's history. Despite the diversity of the contexts addressed, each chapter is built according to the same principle.
The narrative begins with a single coin which, as mentioned at the beginning, functions as a sort of time machine. That era is then recreated through works of art, evidence of material culture, in-depth texts, and digital tools designed to support the visit and offer further insight. The works on display combine to build the meaning of the narrative, broadening the perspective suggested by the coin and restoring the complexity of the historical and cultural context to which it belongs. In this way, visitors are guided along a path that proceeds from the particular to the general, from the tiny object to the world it is capable of evoking.
The coin constitutes the starting point; its horizon is always a broader reality. The same logic also informs the visual identity of the exhibition, designed by Studio Tassinari/Vetta. While respecting the specific features of the individual venues and different contents, the graphic design helps project the image of a single exhibition distributed across space and time. The three sections thus maintain a strong individual recognizability, yet present themselves to the visitor as parts of the same journey of discovery. Finally, this approach responds to a precise idea of what a museum and an exhibition should be.
Scientific research constitutes the indispensable foundation of any cultural project; its natural outcome is the sharing of knowledge. Exhibitions remain an effective museological tool for making complex themes accessible and for connecting different heritages, disciplines, and audiences. For this reason, Rome in coin has been conceived as a journey capable of offering multiple levels of interpretation and insight. Specialists will find materials, comparisons, and interpretations; non-expert visitors, on the other hand, can let themselves be guided by the narrative power of the works. In both cases, the exhibition aims to foster a direct encounter with the history of the city and the extraordinary richness of the cultural heritage it has produced over the centuries.
