Perhaps more than any other object, coins connect with the daily life of the past. For centuries, their function and basic appearance has remained unchanged. When we hold an old coin today, we are aware of the touch of other hands in other circumstances long before. What adventures might it have been witness to? Where has it traveled, and what has it bought? This romance is undeniable; it causes the imagination to take a journey of its own. Under the Mamluks, Egypt enjoyed a rich flowering of art and culture. This elegant bronze coin evokes that vanished world. In its frame of r4adiant gold, it links us in an intimate way with the unbroken chain of human history.