Among the numerous surprises and beauties of the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome, a museum that I will never cease to recommend, we find a very rich numismatic collection, which takes the name of Medagliere. Would you ever have imagined such a thing in a purely archaeological museum? For a local tour guide this underground area has an undoubted charm, as a coin is not just a piece of iron, bronze or gold. But it is much, much more.
Well, imagine entering a real and its own vault, complete with armored doors and walls, and to be catapulted into a rich world made of bronze, gold and silver coins, of numerous sizes and with different effigies, with which you can really cross the centuries. In this way you can make an idea to what this medal table is! The focus of the collection comes from Francesco Gnecchi (1847 – 1919), a painter but above all a great lover of ancient coins and more. It was he who donated his personal and private fortune, which consists of about 20,000 pieces, to the National Roman Museum. There are coins from the roman era, from the republican to the imperial epic, among which we find the so-called aes grave (literally "heavy bronze"), which represent the first cast bronze coins made by many peoples of Central Italy, including which the Romans, in the third century BC, more or less! Imagine that the value of these coins was given by a sign, almost an ideogram, and not by a numerical value. Not to mention the numerous coins of the late republican or imperial age, in which the effigies of emperors, or consuls or important political personalities were used to... be seen! A little as if coins were used as mass media, like modern televisions, suitable for making the populace understand who was the powerful on duty, who they had to thank for the resources they had and the life they lived. A currency was therefore not only an economic instrument, but also a political one. An emperor, for example, could literally show his face even to subjects thousands of kilometers away from Rome. But it doesn't stop there.
In fact, Gnecchi had much more, such as very rare coins from the Theodoric age, when the Gothic king Theodoric, at the beginning of the 6th century AD, conquered Rome and began to administer it. Obviously, he too coines coins for economic and propaganda purposes. But Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, which hosts masterpieces like this one too, also houses the numismatic collection of the ancient Kirckeriano Museum, that place of wonders that the Jesuit, scientist, scholar and curious Kircker opened and expanded over the centuries. Imagine that his ancient collection is now scattered in museums all over the world! And finally, to mention the 1000,000 pieces donated by King Vittorio Emmanuele III, who before going into exile decided to give the Italian government "the love of his life", as he himself wrote. Coins ranging from the 5th to the 20th century, in which we also find rare examples of coins of the European National States and Italy from the beginning of the last century. It is therefore incredible to understand how the millennial history of the Italian territory, from ancient populations to today, can be collected in a single room. Small coins capable of telling their own personal story. A story that, however, represents our origins.
