The Value of Money

Grade Range: 6-12
Resource Type(s): Reference Materials
Duration: 60 minutes
Date Posted: 1/2/2022

Monetary objects are powerful sources for exploring the past. The Value of Money connects American history to global histories of exchange, cultural interaction and expression, political change, and innovation through objects from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection.

This exhibition, which opened at the National Museum of American History in 2015, examines the origins of money, new monetary technologies, the political and cultural messages money conveys, numismatic art and design, and the practice of collecting money. The Value of Money features hundreds of objects from our national money collection representing every inhabited continent and spanning more than 3,000 years.


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