Money
The Money Gallery is a collaborative venture with the British Museum, under the UK Partnership scheme. Despite the modest scope (c. 850 objects), it aims to be universal in scope, by looking at the different traditions of coinage in West and East, as well as premonetary value systems.
The introductory panel looks at these early value systems, and their linguistic legacy in modern English and German. It also shows how, in certain parts of the world, traditional forms of currency continued to function until the end of the 19th century.
The main body of the Gallery runs along the side walls. The principal display cases proceed chronologically, within 3 broad periods: 2500BC-(AD)600, 600-1700, and 1700-present day. They begin with early cuneiform tablets of the 3rd millennium BC, which record transactions in weighed amounts of precious metal, move on to the invention of coinage in West and East in the late 7th century BC, which heralded a rich and continuous 2600-year heritage, and end with the 21st-century use of credit/debit cards to replace the paper money that, in turn, had replaced much of the coinage. On the way, many seminal moments in history are highlighted, and we can trace the movements of people and ideas that have formed much of our modern world.
The displays of objects (artifacts as well as coins) are accompanied, for each particular period, by a map, with trade being the linking factor. This overarching theme of the Gallery is picked up and reflected in the frieze which runs continuously over the wall cases.
Manchester's rich social and economic history is illustrated in a choice display of medallions and tokens in the last of these cases, which provides subject matter for school projects as well as twinges of nostalgia for older Mancunians.
The central cases have 2 themes: technology and treasure. The former illustrates the different processes used to make coins over the centuries, and features examples of moulds for casting the earliest pieces, iron dies used to make the hammered coins of the medieval world, and modern dies for striking the new £1 coin. This display brings the story of money up-to-date, with a brief review of electronic banking. The latter theme will appeal to those who dream of finding buried treasure, with coins from some of the important finds from the Manchester area, as well as spectacular examples of medieval gold pieces from the famous Fishpool Hoard (15th cent.).
Some highlights of the Gallery are a Mesopotamian duck weight (3rd-2nd millennium BC), Roman medallions in gold and silver (4th cent.), silver pennies of Edward the Elder (10th cent.) showing an Anglo-Saxon tower and the manus dei (hand of God), a gold double dinar of Genghis Khan (13th cent.), a huge coin of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (14th cent.), copper plate money from Sweden (18th cent.), and a Bank of England £200 banknote dated 1699.
