At the Money Museum, we believe that attaching importance to money, talking and thinking about it does not imply materialism, greed, or superficiality. On the contrary, it suggests that we are trying to understand how the world works and that we are taking responsibility for our future.
If we are curious about how to create transnational corporations, organize the economy of an entire country, or even just run our own online store sensibly, we will inevitably encounter issues related to money at every turn. These issues always deal with currency in different ways, so it's easy to see that there's more than two sides to the coin, and that money is actually a much more nuanced and multifaceted phenomenon than we previously thought.
The Hungarian Money Museum and Visitor Center, established by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank was created with the aim of helping people navigate the world of money. We do not deny that this world hides many dead ends, sometimes entire labyrinths, which is why we believe it is important to experience the greater thrills within the walls of the museum – and not in our own real lives. The exhibition space offers a wealth of experiences and adventures, all of which help visitors learn about new aspects of the circulation and use of money.
Our mission is to prove that anyone can understand how money works. This knowledge is essential in our individual, family, and community lives, which is why we believe that knowledge about the use of money can make our entire society richer, both literally and figuratively.
Mission statement
The aim of the Money Museum is to familiarize visitors with the history of various means of payment, coins, and banknotes, as well as the deeper economic and social implications of money, thereby contributing to the development of financial awareness. It does so using a modern museological approach, presenting information to visitors in an authentic, highly professional, yet accessible and experiential manner.
It collects and processes Hungarian numismatic memorabilia, banking history objects, documents and photographs using a scientific approach.
It strives to make its exhibitions and collections accessible to all segments of society. It considers environmental awareness and social responsibility to be fundamental values, and determines its operations and activities with professional and social ethical considerations in mind.
Money is one of the most significant inventions in human history: a universal trust system capable of creating connections and order among the most diverse members of society. Money is a means of cooperation between people and, as such, a tool and driving force for development, keeping the economy moving and enabling progress and construction. This comprehensive phenomenon, which permeates and defines all levels of the economy and society, goes far beyond the tangible, physical forms of money.
Money is not an object, but a concept, a logic, or rather a form of communication and interaction. The Money Museum, created by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (The Central Bank of Hungary) and operated by MNB-EduLab Kft. as its maintainer, was established with the aim of providing insight into the philosophy and mechanics of money; to familiarize visitors with the history of various means of payment, coins, and banknotes, as well as the deeper economic and social implications of money.
The Money Museum introduces a new approach and way of thinking into public discourse on our means of payment, reinterpreting reframes our existing concepts and thereby contributes to the Hungarian population gaining a more layered, comprehensive understanding, awareness and knowledge of the world of finance. We have undertaken to create one of Europe's most innovative experience centers and visitor centers, which is also the symbolic cornerstone of an even more extensive intellectual construction: the flourishing of domestic financial culture. This mission is reflected in the symbol chosen for the Money Museum, the golden stag, a recurring figure in Hungarian mythology and folklore who moves between the earthly and heavenly spheres, leading his followers to a land of opportunity, development, and fulfillment.
In order to illustrate the role and functioning of money and to present the means of payment preserved as historical heritage in a museum setting, the Money Museum applies a fusion approach: it simultaneously fulfills an edutainment-oriented visitor center role and, according to our plans, contributes to the expansion and enrichment of the professional activities of the national public collection institution network as a national professional museum. Cooperation with domestic and foreign partner institutions plays a prominent role in the museum's activities, allowing the public to view and learn about rare cultural and monetary history items that would otherwise be difficult to access.
The mission of the Money Museum focuses on reaching out to the Hungarian public, primarily students and young people, as well as interested adults and families; and its undisguised goal is to contribute to the development of financial awareness among the population through its activities. To this end, our institution presents authentic professional ideas to visitors in an easily accessible, experiential form, with an emphasis on spectacular multimedia environments, interactive digital technology, and knowledge that is easy to apply in practice, based on examples from everyday life. Thanks to the versatility of the experience space, the museum is able to convey value to individual visitors, university students seeking professional knowledge, and primary and secondary school students attending museum education classes. In addition, it offers understandable, experience-based activities even for the youngest visitors.
The mission of the Money Museum, which represents an innovative economic and didactic approach unprecedented in Hungary, is to use the most modern tools and exhibition practices to make visitors realize that the functioning of money is understandable to everyone. We believe that the knowledge gained will become a tool and a capacity for action, enabling us to become more organized and conscious in our everyday lives, and thus gain greater influence over the major economic and social processes that govern our lives.