Currency Notes: The Money Archive

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Currency Notes: The Money Archive

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Bibliographic details

• Authors: MELINDA WEIR
• Published: June 3, 2024

Overview

• The Smithsonian’s National Numismatic Collection (NNC) is described as being “thought to be the world’s largest collection of its kind.”
• The NNC is housed in a storage-cabinet-filled room called “the vault” at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
• The vault contains an estimated 1.6 million forms of physical money and transactional objects.
• The collection “represent[s] every inhabited continent, and they span more than 3,000 years of human history,” according to Ellen Feingold, curator of the NNC.

Notable artifacts (selected examples)

• A tiny electrum coin, the size of a stud earring, from 7th–6th century BCE Lydia (present-day Türkiye).
• A 2,000-year-old example of “knife money” from China: a bronze, knife-shaped piece designed to represent value rather than for practical use.
• A 14th century Ming Dynasty–era banknote.
• Early banknotes from the American colonies, including notes bearing the inscription "'Tis Death to counterfeit".
• Personal checks signed by early US presidents.
• A 5th century BCE coin from ancient Greece featuring an owl (representing Athens) and Athena.
• A tire-size stone ring from the island of Yap (featured in the museum exhibition “The Value of Money”).

Cultural and historical insights

• Obsolete US banknotes in the collection display diverse imagery beyond typical Founding Fathers or Lady Liberty, including:
  • Symbols of industry, such as shipbuilding and trains.
  • Domestic and pastoral scenes, e.g., a woman milking cows and a child snuggling bunnies.
  • Imagery that is “respectful and thoughtful,” as well as imagery that is “degrading and inappropriate from our lens,” including depictions of slavery and stereotypical images of indigenous communities.
• Physical money artifacts reveal insights into:
  • Political history and collective identity (e.g., city symbols and patron deities on coins).
  • Cultural ideas related to values, trust, and artistic beauty.
  • Economic health of past societies via the types and quality of materials used.

Access, curation, and public engagement

• The NNC’s vault is accessible to researchers by appointment.
• The collection is being gradually digitized.
• Selected items are on public display in the museum’s exhibition “The Value of Money” and in “Really BIG Money,” an exhibition aimed at children.

F&D Magazine — The Money Archive; MELINDA WEIR; June 2024

Content in this bundle

• The Money Archive
  • The Money Archive (Markdown version)
  • The Money Archive (PDF)