The stunning coin is set in an 18-katat gold pendant. When Rome was at her glorious height, her citizens used this heavy coin as we still use money: to purchase goods, both luxurious and ordinary. It passed from hand to hand, touched by people who noted its attractive imperial portrait, and the optimistic message on the reverse. Although money was rare enough in Antiquity, those Romans perhaps thought little of the sestertius as they handled it. Yet the glow of their touch lingers about it still, a direct connection between our age and the splendor of the Classical world.