Introducing The Hungarian Money Museum & Visitor Center
Have you ever lifted a real gold bar? Have you ever been a member of the Monetary Council or a stock market shark?
If you have not visited the Money Museum yet, then head to Széll Kálmán Square, more specifically to 6 Krisztina krt.! In addition to the above activities, you can also enjoy many more interactive and playful experiences at the Hungarian Money Museum and Visitor Center.
Do not think of the Money Museum as a classic museum, where you can only see old objects with short or long descriptions underneath them! Sure, there are some very interesting old objects here, but basically the Money Museum is more of an ultra-modern educational space equipped with state-of-the-art technology. While not an educational institution, the museum's primary aim is to educate people about financial awareness, using computer technology to showcase even the times before money was a thing.
This is an interesting interweaving of past, present and future, as the building itself is already a hundred years old. Imagine that the former Postal Palace became Budapest's first office building. Built between 1923 and 1927, designed by a certain Gyula Sándy. It was severely damaged during the Second World War and even during the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight, but it was always rebuilt, and now, after the latest renovation, it is owned by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank. This is where the central bank is located, and the Money Museum operates on the Sándy Gyula alley side.
However, almost all of its authentic, historicising spaces, were modernized by technology. On entry, you will meet two talking, dancing robots you can even talk to! You can use the cards you get at the reception desk to walk around the museum and try out all the games. The Money Museum takes you through five sections on the “Path of Money”, from bartering and commodity money, through old and new types of money, to cryptocurrencies.
The trip starts in the 'Gold Mine', where you can learn about the history of gold mining in Hungary. Did you know, for example that in the Middle Ages, Hungary supplied the whole of Europe with gold? That is how it was! Here you can see the paraphernalia of gold mining, but you can also see a piece of native gold in this space. Here you can personalise your card, so you can play our games later on. The 'golden thread' starts on the second floor and runs through the whole exhibition. The so-called 'transfiguration space' - where you will also meet two virtual assistants (Anna and Peter) - will take you to the first section, where you can learn about bartering, obviously through an interactive game, but also about commodity money
that were used in different countries. For example, bone artefacts, Chinese tea bricks, various furs, shells, etc.
The second section is where money appears. Here you can also see a real curiosity, the five-round gold ducat of the only Transylvanian prince of Szekler origin, Mózes Székely, from 1603, of which the piece in the museum is the only one that has survived in the world. At this section you can also examine the security features of current Hungarian banknotes, the micro-engravings, or the security features visible only under UV-A or UV-C light. You can also play a game here: you can find out what the gardener has in his hand on the HUF 500 banknote! What kind of gardener is he? You've never seen the gardener, have you? Or you can count on the HUF 10,000 banknote how many people are in the boats! What's that? Boats on the ten thousand? Yes, there are, but you can only see them with a magnifying glass!
The third section is where Internet banking gets introduced, so we are moving towards the present day, but we also have a bit of history, as here we can see the objects used when the Magyar Nemzeti Bank was founded, such as the pneumatic tube, which you can try out, or the first ledger, which you can also look through, but you can also see some personal items of the first president of the central bank, Sándor Popovics, such as his hat. Moving on, you can become a member of the Monetary Council, and even find out what monetary policy is, or what the central bank does.
In the fourth section, you can try your hand at being a real stockbroker, trading companies, shares, but also see how online shopping works!
The fifth section is for treasures that cannot be measured in money. Here you can meet the legendary Hungarian Golden Team, alongside Donat Bánki, László Moholy-Nagy, Pal Kitaibel, fantastic Hungarian minds, and even Katalin Karikó and Ferenc Krausz. One of the biggest attractions of the Money Museum is also here: at this junction you can lift a piece of the 110-tonne Hungarian gold reserve, a 12.5-kilogram gold bar. The current value of this gold bar is around HUF 330 million, but you can probably feel that in the weight of the item itself.
Then, at the exit, you can even design a banknote with your own portrait, which will of course be yours to keep after the visit! The Money Museum is free to visit - and the spaces are accessible (Access4you rating 2024) - but it's worth registering in advance and booking an appointment. You can also take a guided tour of the museum, but you need to book in advance!
After a tiring tour and lots of learning, it is worth sitting down for a coffee or a toasted sandwich in the museum's renovated café, but if you're in the mood for something stronger than coffee and you like an exclusive view, head up to the Money Museum's Panoramic Terrace, where you can enjoy a pastry and a glass of wine while looking down over the city from the top of Buda. The interesting thing about this place is that until a year ago it was always closed, even during the'Postal Palace' no one was allowed up there...really no one - not even postal workers - had been up there for the last hundred, sorry, 99 years! The terrace is also open in winter and is probably the only sky bar in Budapest where you can enjoy a drink in a heated transparent igloo and admire the city's winter lights.
Address: 6 Krisztina krt, Budapest, H-1122 Hungary
Phone: +36 1 234 4694
Website: https://penzmuzeum.hu
