From the perspective of time and distance, we think of this coin as a token of a remarkable age. Yet the people who first held it probably gave it little more thought than we give any coin in our pocket today. It passed from hand to hand, buying goods in the bazaar, paying perhaps for an evening at a tavern or a performance at the theater. The news from Rome, where Claudius sat on the throne, was treated with emotions similar to those that we still reserve for politics. Such a coin, in its frame of gold, reminds us that while the world changes constantly, the essentials of life remain the same.