The Money Museum operated by the American Numismatic Association presents a virtual exhibition, “Coins, Crown & Conflict: An Exploration of Cromwell’s England” – originally displayed in 2007-08. The popular exhibition was based on the history of the English Civil Wars and featured some of the great rarities of English coins (including the Petition Crown), as well as a number of early American coins.
The exhibition probes the period starting with the reign of Charles I and the English Civil Wars to the first years of the restored British monarchy under Charles II, through the coins, medals, people and objects associated with Oliver Cromwell. Included in this display is the Geoffrey Cope Collection, one of the finest collections of coins from this period, to help tell the story of this turbulent time in English history.
The Money Museum has reopened to the public after being closed due to COVID-19. But for those that may not be able to visit in person, the museum offers a number of other virtual exhibition:
- “Money of Empire: Elizabeth to Elizabeth” illustrates the development of the British Empire from its beginnings under Elizabeth I (1558-1603) to the present day. It is the museum’s current main exhibition.
- “Trenches to Treaties: World War I in Remembrance” depicts the events and effects of World War I politically, economically and socially through money and medals.
- “The History of Money” explores the evolution of money over the last 10,000 years, with displays on the earliest forms of money up to modern times.
- “The Bebee Collection” an assemblage of over 800 individual notes and numerous uncut sheets, including spectacular rarities such as a Series 1934 $10,000 Federal Reserve note.
Included in the online Museum features is a virtual collection of the Museum’s inventory that can be perused for research purposes or to see aspects of the Museum collection that are not on display. The Museum blog, “Tales from the Vault” shares captivating stories about pieces in the vault, such as Wilbur Wright’s numismatic collection, California National bank notes, hard times tokens and more.
For more information on the museum visit the ANA-website.
There you can visit the exhibition “Coins, Crown and Confict”.
