Lecture – Faces of Power: Stories Behind Portraits on Greek and Roman Coins
Faces of Power: Stories Behind Portraits on Greek and Roman Coins
Ancient Greek and Roman coins preserve some of the most widespread portraits from antiquity, showing how rulers wanted to be seen by their people and how artistic styles changed over the centuries. As the main way ordinary people saw the faces of kings, emperors, and rulers, coins remain key evidence for understanding ancient propaganda, political symbols, and portrait styles. The relevance of this topic clear by the debate today about who should appear on modern currency, from Queen Elizabeth II to proposals for a coin showing a portrait of President Trump.
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Ute Wartenberg is the Sydney F. Martin Executive Director of the American Numismatic Society (ANS). During her time at the ANS, the institution has grown into one of the world’s leading numismatic institutions, with an outstanding team of researchers and staff. A Rhodes Scholar, she earned her D.Phil. in Classics from Oxford.
A distinguished scholar and prolific author specializing in ancient Greek coinage, Wartenberg served as Curator of Greek Coins at the British Museum (1991–1998) before joining ANS. She has taught at Oxford University and Columbia University and lectured across Europe and the US. Her curatorial work includes numerous exhibitions, most recently “When Coinage was born.” Treasures from Zhuyuetang Collection, which opened at the Casa de la Moneda in Madrid in 2025. Her current research projects involve a monograph on Persian coinage, the publication of Electrum Coins in the Hellenic National Museum in Athens, and the publication of the excavation coins of the Kerameikos in Athens (with Selene Psoma).
Wartenberg chaired the US Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (2003–2007); currently serves as President of the International Numismatic Council (since 2022), was Chair of ICOMON (2019–2022), and is on the board of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial and the Glyptothek in Munich.
Image Caption: Deified head of Alexander the Great (bound with royal fillet, wearing ram horn of Ammon). Silver tetradrachm; Pergamon, Aeolis (mod. Turkey); reign of Lysimachus, ca. 287–282 ʙᴄᴇ. American Numismatic Society, 1966.75.102 (used with permission).