Museum to showcase bewildering history of Palestinian money
A new money museum in Ramallah will display all the 28 different currencies Palestine has used over the ages.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestine is set to open an interactive money museum by next spring that will showcase the monetary history of a land that has used more than 28 different currencies in its volatile past.
The museum will be created through cooperation between the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA), the Ramallah-based central bank that is responsible for formulating and implementing the country's monetary and banking policies.
PMA Governor Azzam al-Shawa told Al-Monitor that the museum will tell the story of the Palestinian economy through the ages — from the time of bartering to modern economic concepts. The museum, to be located at the PMA headquarters, will also support research and publication in monetary and financial history with its research and resource center.
Jihad Yassin, the director general of the Archaeological Excavations Department at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, explained that his ministry will provide the museum with coins that were confiscated from antiquities smugglers. The ministry will also restore ancient coins that will be placed in the museum to offer a chronological display of money used throughout the different eras.
