The ANS has a selection of rare Roman coins on display as part of an exhibition at Bulgari’s flagship store in New York City. “BVLGARI + ROME: Eternal Inspiration” reflects on the jeweler’s long association with the “Eternal City,” where the original shop was opened in 1884 by Sotirios Boulgaris. The exhibition includes a mix of contemporary jewelry and ancient Roman artifacts and coins.

Bulgari has from time to time also used actual ancient coins in its line as with this choker embedded with a tetradrachm of Alexander the Great. New York magazine has a wonderful slide show of some of the items on display.

The American Numismatic Society loan comprises eighteen Roman coins, most notably a gold treveri medallion from AD 293–294. The medallion features busts of four Roman emperors; Diocletian and Galerius on the obverse and Maximian and Constantius on the reverse, each wearing the imperial mantle.

It was part of the so-called Beaurains Treasure, a rich hoard of Roman artifacts discovered in 1922 near the city of Arras in Northern France. The ANS holds over fifty pieces from that hoard, which you can learn more about here.

One of the other notable coins on display is a denarius of the infamous assassin Marcus Junius Brutus. The image on the reverse of a pileus, a cap given to freed slaves, between two daggers underscored the belief by Brutus and his supporters that the murderous act had liberated the Roman Republic from Julius Caesar‘s tyranny. The legend EID MAR or ‘Ides of March’ commemorates the day of the deed. The coin was minted in 42-43 BCE as Brutus and his allies were raising an army in northern Greece to march on Rome in what was ultimately a failed bid to seize power. It is rare to see an ancient coin so rich in symbolism and so directly tied to a notable event. Among the other coins featured are an aureus of Sextus Pompey and a dozen or so gold solidi, which will be display at the 730 Fifth Avenue store until November 22.