Class Trip To Bank Negara Museum & Art Gallery

Went to a class trip today organized by our lecturer to Bank Negara Museum ! It's a museum about interesting facts of money and they show it through some interactive games and media . They separated the galleries into 7 parts.

First we went into the Numismatics Gallery.

Some of the barters traded items from long time ago such as from malay peninsula & borneo we have spices [ black pepper , white pepper , cinnamon ] & jungle products [ resin , sandalwood ,  ratton ].

A coin belt that was worn by Sarawak woman during the 19th century on the celebration of auspicious occasions at their long house.

And then China's influence of money starting to pour in Malay states on the 8th & 15th century where traders introduced copper cash which was used as small change in bazaars by local people.

Cute symbolism of money tat caught my eyes.

from the left : Key money , Spade Money , Knife Money

from the top left : Bar money , Shop-shaped sycee , Ant or Nose Money

from the bottom left : Copper shilling , Imitation Cowrie Shell , Saddle-shaped sycee

Animals-shaped coins.

Siamese Glass Gaming Tokens [ 18th to 19th century ]

from the left : Mould & Glass Mould for casting Tin Ingots

Big Ingots used during 15th and 16th century.

Real gold dust that widely used in most parts of Malay Archipelago

Cockerel-shaped tins coins during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Jiwa (1710 - 1773), Kedah

Top : A cockerel perched on 5 rings , A cockerel without wings

Bottom : Broken-off wings

Interactive Educational Media projecting about different coins in different reign.

Quite alot of projectors hanging on the ceiling to project at the long wall.

Visitors can click on this "Touch Here" button to view different coins. 

Money trees of Kelantan that was introduced by China during Tang Dynasty. [looks like one of fengshui charm that was used in now modern day ]

Cocos(Keeling)Islands [ 1913 ]

Tokens that were made from bones or ivory that replaced earlier sheep skin & paper currency.

Coins issued by the Board Of Commissioners of Currency Malaya & British Borneo (1953 - 1961).

The obverse of coins showing portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

CURRENCY NOTES & COUPONS

Patterns notes of the Board of Commissions of Currency Malaya & British Borneo

Government of the Straits Settlements issued during the reign King George V

(1915 - 1936)

Currency of Japanese Military for Burma 

(1942 - 1945)

Japanese military currency notes for Malaya

(1942 - 1945)

Second thing that caught my eyes were these rubber coupons that were used ! According to Bank Negara Museum website itself , these coupons were introduced during depression in the rubber industry after First World War.

Private Token Currency from Perak.

First few series of Normal Circulation Coins

Commemorative Coins

Cultural Artefacts in the design of Malaysian currency notes & coins

                                                            World Currency Notes

Then, we move on to the Art Gallery on the 3rd floor.

Not sure why the artist painted the sea in red but its nice.

This art piece have super nice textures and colors. One of my fave!

After taken some rest in the super big Art Gallery , we went back down to the First Floor for Economics Gallery.

Tools for Minting Gold Coins - Malay States

(16th - 19th century)

Not sure what is this. "Hello?"

Price Cube that visitors can turn around.

This interactive thing is super interesting! Basically visitors must key in the answer for " When is Bank Negara established? " And then the glass will beome transparent and visitor can view insides of the room which contained gold bar and cash. After few seconds ,  the glass will become solid again.

Coin Minting Machine. 

Malaysia coins were first minted on 12 June 1967.

Elements of a Cheque

Always wonder what are these numbers on cheque stands for? Here it is.

Cheque Writer to protect cheque by preventing the monetary amount from being altered.

Cheque Protection in Action

Visitors can try the cheque perforator by punching small round holes that form perforated numerals.

Another interactive media. Visitors can choose the buttons and the screen will project the video through a hidden projector above the ceiling.

Visitors press on the buttons to project a video. The video was projected by a hidden projector and a mirror ,  the mirror will then reflect to the screen and forming a video.

The Governor's Room

After that , we walk to the opposite which is the Islamic Finance Gallery.

Weighing Scales & Box - Safavid Dynasty , Iran

(16th century)

Used to weight valueble items which were essential to the pursuit of trade & commerse.

TUI Technology Game

Projector that projects to the big globe.

Minting Kit

Before we depart back to college , we went to the final gallery which located at the ground floor. Children's Gallery!

The tunnel of money. Interesting...

Children interactive media. Scanning the products and see how much u spend.

Children can know how much they need to spend to invest on something in this media.

Materials that they used to produce cash.

Our trip ended around 12.30pm and we had quite a lot of fun discovering new things.

The first few impressions towards this museum was the architecture we seen from the outside. It does not look like a museum overall but a very modern office. The space were super big. Besides that , it was nice to explore around as they separated the gallery into few categories. The history of coins and cash really attract me a lot.

The gold / copper coins and cash notes represents the impression i have towards this museum. It's really hard to find old coins and notes outside nowdays except this museum.

The part that makes me curious the most is how they kept the Yap stone money for that long. I wonder if the stone is real or just a replica one because I saw one in Numismatics Gallery and another one in Children Gallery.

I enjoy this educational trip a lot. The learning experience are fully absorb as a visitor. I love how they present some games and videos in interactive media as visitors can play along with it.

I think the net generation would less likely share the information among their friends as they need to visit this museum to fully enjoy the information at there rather than just listening and looking at pictures and its kinda hard to explain the information inside the museum without oneself experience it. Rather than their friends , i think they are more likely will share to their older generation family such as their grandmas and grandpas as they have experience with those history of money and they were born in that generation time so they'll be more interested to accept the information.

The questions that i would like to ask are :

Why the bank notes patterns are more interesting last time compared to now?

Why the materials of coins from copper slowly evolve to alloy metal?

How the generation of Yap Stone Money carried around their money when they wanted to buy stuffs? Won't it be heavy?