As Austria’s central bank, the OeNB has an obligation to present monetary issues, including monetary history, to the general public. The OeNB’s Money Museum meets this obligation with exhibits that describe the development of money from its origins to the present day.
A representative selection of these exhibits is on display in the permanent exhibition “Money in Austria,” which also includes a presentation of the banknote production process. Moreover, the Money Museum organizes special temporary exhibitions, each highlighting a different money-related theme.
In addition to offering free tours for groups of ten and more persons, the Money Museum has also designed a comprehensive program catering especially to kindergarten groups and schoolchildren. Workshops such as “Euro, Pound & Co.”, “Have Fish – Seek Bread” and “The Adventurous Journey of a Gold Nugget” let children discover how money, the monetary system and the economy work. An array of instructive objects is used to help children find the answers to questions appropriate to their age group, such as “What do T-shirts and banknotes have in common?”; “What do we need money for?” and “How does Mozart come to be on a coin?”
Also, every visitor has a chance to view Europe’s biggest gold coin and then to test his or her strength by lifting a gold bar.
The Money Museum houses a large collection of banknotes, banknote designs, securities and coins. These collections of monetary history artifacts are valuable both materially and culturally, given that many of its oldest objects are unique and date back to the Bronze Age.
