The Ides of March

Today! March 15.

From The New York Times' "Et Tu, British Museum? Coin Commemorating Caesar's Murder Goes on Display"

... On Monday — the Ides of March, naturally — the British Museum put on display a gold coin given to one of Caesar’s assassins, which may have been worn as a memento by the boastful killer, The Guardian reported. ...

NY Times' Photo

The Guardian's article uses a photo of a different coin, also attributed to the British Museum, which makes it clear how the coin could have been "worn":

The Guardian's Photo

The Times' story indicates that the coin they have depicted is believed by experts to be a fake. The Guardian's story makes clear that such coins existed:

The swaggering imagery displayed on the coin was already famous in antiquity. In the second century AD, the Roman historian Cassius Dio wrote: "Brutus stamped upon the coins which were being minted in his own likeness and a cap and two daggers, indicating by this and by the inscription that he and Cassius had liberated the fatherland."

The Times' story does state: "The Guardian said that some 60 silver versions of the coin have survived, but only two were believed to exist in gold — one of which is now believed by experts to be a fake." So, we have photos of all the gold versions, if the experts are correct.

Interestingly, in The Guardian's photo, the coin's image is cropped. Was that to make it difficult for counterfeiters?

COINLINK's "Possibly Unique 'Ides Of March' Gold Coin to be Displayed at British Museum" has another interesting story.

Ansel Adams Photos at the Interior Department

The Los Angeles Times informs us, in Ansel Adams, from the wilderness to the corridors of power, that the Interior Department has installed an exhibit of photos by Ansel Adams in its halls, in Washingtion, D.C. The photos were taken as part of a project commissioned in 1941 by then-Interior Secretary Harold Ickes.

The article states, "Adams was paid $22 per day to work on the project, and he only charged the government for the days when he actually shot. He took more than 200 photos over about a month, but with the onset of World War II, the project stalled."

"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has since revived the project and -- at a cost of $17,000 -- had 26 of the images permanently installed in the halls of the Interior building at 1849 C St., NW."

The exhibit at the Interior Department is the first time the photos have been viewable by the public.

A slideshow of twenty-six images, with a high-resolution of each available, can be seen at the Interior Department's website, here.

The photo included with this post is of Canyon de Chelly, a national monument, in northeast Arizona.