money exhibition Archives - Grethe van GeffenGrethe van Geffen

In Money Museum Gaziantep (Devr-i Alem Para Müzesi) you will see money everywhere. It is a private museum, very different from other money museums I visited (f.ex. my blog about Nicosia, Tunis) because it is not about showing a particular collection. It is – really, I do not exagerate – about showing money in quantities.

There is money hanging on trees. There is money in bottles along the wallsides, hanging on the ceiling, standing on a table that is almost overloaded.
On the table alone there is 4000 kilo (!) of coins. There is a box with money that has never been used because it was not legally acquired and the ‘owners’ found no way for the necessary money laundering. There is very old money, from ancient times, and new money that could be used today but it is just there, apparently useless but not completely useless as many visitors admire the place every day and see that there are different ways to deal with money. TV-reporters from different countries have discovered the museum already; the day before I visited the museum, an Iraqi TV-channel was there.
The Money Museum Gaziantep is run by a local guy who worked in the Netherlands during many years and founded this museum on his return. Make sure that you speak to him because he is very much part of the charm of the museum. And most probably days after you visited the museum you still think about all the money you saw and why a place like this exists in the world – and how it is run and secured….