Magnifying devices, an interactive digital screen, and four iPads play a crucial role in a larger, nearby gallery dedicated to ancient coins. The Michael C. Ruettgers Gallery for Ancient Coins, which, like the gallery for ancient jewelry, opened in September 2012, has quickly become a favorite - especially with younger visitors who, thanks to books like Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson" series, tend to know their Greek myths better than many adults.

Coins open a window onto ancient history and mythology like few other objects. But they can be hard on the eyes and pose challenges to one's powers of concentration. This new gallery's open layout, its handy but unobtrusive technology, and its ingeniously straightforward labeling - not to mention the collection itself, which is stunning - conspire to make numismatists of us all.

Among the coins are the world famous "Dekadrachm of Syracuse with quadriga" (circa 465 BC) - a Greek coin that also features Nike and a two-horse chariot - and a Roman denarius from 43-42 BC which boasts the head of Caesar's assassin, Brutus, on one side, and the cap of liberty flanked by two daggers on the other.

The gallery also includes wonderful related works and contextual information - everything from a large map of the Mediterranean to a lithograph showing studies of 12 ancient coins by the 19th-century French painter Eugène Delacroix.

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