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Expressions of Identity in Ancient Greek Coins
The exhibition Expressions of Identity in Ancient Greek Coins is currently on view at the University of Colorado Art Museum in Boulder, Colorado. This exhibition explores the powerful messages that coins convey through symbolic representations. The visual imagery of these tiny objects demonstrates how the ancient Greeks conceived of themselves and their relationships to their communities, histories, and beliefs, both religious and political. They bear information about geographies, power and propaganda, artistic techniques, local economic resources, and more. The coins on display in the exhibition comprise a selection of the CU Art Museum's ancient Greek and Roman coins (see also CUAM Ancient & Classical Collection), and those generously on loan to the Museum by John Nebel (see also ancientmoney.org).
Explore the coins on display in the exhibition
Explore 150+ selected coins of John Nebel's collection
Explore the coins in the CU Art Museum's collection
The coins depicted and described on these pages were incorporated into the syllabus for the Fall 2025 Numismatics Seminar. Some of these coins are currently on view in the exhibit Expressions of Identity in Ancient Greek Coins. CU Boulder faculty and students are welcome to work with the CU Art Museum’s coins in the Ancient & Classical Collection in the Collection Study Center by appointment. Coins from Nebel's collection that are not on view in the exhibition are not available for research appointments.
Website Overview
This website is a supplementary resource to the physical installation of the exhibition at the CU Art Museum. It includes more information about ancient Greek and Roman coinage around the Mediterranean world, as well as digital resources, teaching tools, and 150+ coins of John Nebel's collection that were selected for the participants of the Fall 2025 Numismatics Seminar to study as part of Professor Elspeth Dusinberre's object-based pedagogy. The website features high resolution photographs of Nebel's coins, which are open access and free to the public.
Acknowledgements
This online exhibition was designed, implemented, and published by Phoebe Mock (PhD student, University of Michigan; MA in Classics, University of Colorado Boulder) in tandem with the physical installation at the CU Art Museum in Spring 2026. Both grow from a seminar for undergraduate and graduate students at CU-Boulder, taught in Fall 2025 by Elspeth Dusinberre. Participants were Ellen Alles, Julia Bowers, James Chanfrau, Caleb Curtis, Joseph Dias, Chancellor Fortenberry, Celia Frankenheimer, Jordan Garcia, Lindsay Howard, Ryan Johnson, Isabella Praslin, Grace Saunders, Camerynn Teuta, Emma Trotter, and Hejing Zhang, as well as Classics Department friends Mary McClanahan and John Nebel, and CUAM Director Hope Saska. We are grateful to many individuals and institutions for their support and expertise, including Dr. Saska, Maggie Mazzullo of the CUAM, the Classics Department, and the College of Arts & Sciences at CU-Boulder, as well as the students who participated in the class.
The class and exhibition were made possible by the generosity and expert participation of John Nebel. The website features high-resolution photos he took of the coins and brought to class, which were the focal points of weekly object-based learning in the Collections Study Center of the CUAM. We are grateful he shared his deep knowledge and expertise via presentations in class, as well as offering bibliographical and other research help.