Bank of Russia Museum takes part in Long Night of Museums

The ‘Pages of the Bank of Russia History’ exhibition of the RF Central Bank’s Museum and Exposition Fund was for the first time open outside the regular schedule through 23:00 on Saturday 21 May 2016, in sync with the already traditional Long Night of Museums, a cultural and educational event.

The first visitors were welcomed with a musical programme by the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory’s Central Music School students.

The concert was followed by a presentation, by museum curators Mikhail Nikolaev and Irina Levicheva, about the history of the national central bank from its day one. The presenters spoke on the first mint and printing facilities to produce Russian coins and banknotes some centuries ago. On display were the kerenki, early paper money issued by the Provisional Government headed by Kerensky, kopecks of the New Economic Policy time, Soviet rubles of various dates of issue and new Russian banknotes.

The most eye-catching showpieces included old vintages of cash registers and special-purpose currency-counting machines — for coins and banknotes and counterfeit / old note detection. The visitors could see a centuries-old money coffer closing, emitting a beep, and a screw press in action; the latter was used to immediately print memorable token coins for the group of visitors.

The visitors were given a financial and historical quest before the tour, so that the winners giving at least three right answers of four would be awarded some souvenirs. Also, all visitors were awarded souvenirs of different kinds (books, booklets about the history of the Bank of Russia, postcards); children were given the so-called ‘financial fairy-tales’ and pictorial puzzles. Each visitor could use the occasion to affix, with his/her own hand ‘the Long Night of Museums stamp’ on the booklet. The concluding part of the excursion was outside in Neglinnaya Street so the visitors could see and listen to a story about the architectural features of the Bank of Russia premises.

Those who missed the opportunity to visit the exhibition as part of the Long Night of Museums are still welcome to visit on other days. Please follow the link to register in advance for excursions to the Bank of Russia’s Museum and Exposition Fund.