The Museum Blog

  • November 18, 2013

    Notes from the Collection: A Buying Trip to Toronto

    By: Paul S. Berry


    Recently, from October 3 to 5th, collections staff were at the Toronto Coin Expo, held at the Toronto Reference Library on Yonge Street. The show boasts informative lectures, a large auction of coins, tokens and paper money as well as a showroom, called a bourse, where dealers greet clients and buy and sell material.
    Content type(s): Blog posts
  • October 28, 2013

    Director’s chair : A little help from our friends

    By: Ken Ross


    In one of my favourite cinematic moments, the 11 year-old chess prodigy, Josh Waitzkin, imagines sweeping the pieces off a chess board in order to help him think more clearly about an important game of chess. It is a championship game and he is on the brink of winning it all.
    Content type(s): Blog posts
  • October 7, 2013

    The Cases are Almost Empty

    By: Graham Iddon


    For the first time since they went into their cases in 1980, over 2000 coins, notes, beads and shells are coming back out. The Museum’s curatorial staff are busily pulling panels from cases, placing coins into specially prepared drawers and sliding notes into acid-free Mylar envelopes.
    Content type(s): Blog posts
  • September 24, 2013

    Curators Begin Removal of Artifacts

    By: Graham Iddon


    The doors were barely closed following Big Top Farewell event before Chief Curator Paul Berry and his team began emptying display cases that had been sealed shut since 1980. The biggest task involved removing more than 2500 bank notes from the room we knew as Gallery 8.
    Content type(s): Blog posts
  • September 16, 2013

    Notes from the Collection : 2013 RCNA Convention Winnipeg

    By: David Bergeron


    Another convention of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association (RCNA) wrapped up in July. This year the convention was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was the first time in over thirty years that the RCNA Convention made a stop there.
    Content type(s): Blog posts
  • September 6, 2013

    First Artifacts to Leave the Museum: And they were big

    By: Graham Iddon


    Before the museum closed for renovations on 2 July, technicians began to remove the heavier artifacts in late May. First to go was the strong box. Built of ¼” thick welded steel plates, this trunk was used by the Bank of Upper Canada in Toronto between 1821 and 1866.
    Content type(s): Blog posts
  • August 30, 2013

    Director’s chair : “I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.”

    By: Ken Ross


    Most of us know the first part of Alexander Graham Bell’s take on opportunity: “When one door closes, another one opens…” What we often don’t recall is the second half of that quote, where he says: “…but we so often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
    Content type(s): Blog posts
  • July 30, 2013

    Remembering Alex Colville (1920-2013)

    By: Raewyn Passmore


    The Staff of the Currency Museum was saddened to learn of the passing of artist Alex Colville who died on 16 July at his home in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He was 92. One of Canada’s most celebrated painters, Colville is not as well-known as a sculptor but if you look carefully through your pocket change you might just find an example of his work.
    Content type(s): Blog posts
  • June 21, 2013

    Farewell to the Currency Museum c.1980

    By: Graham Iddon


    The roots of the Currency Museum go back to 1959 when the then Governor of the Bank of Canada, James Coyne, proposed the idea of establishing a currency collection that would reflect the colourful monetary history of Canada. By the time the go-ahead was given in 1963 by Coyne’s successor, Louis Rasminsky, the collection’s mandate had been expanded to include world monetary history, banking and production artifacts and a numismatic library.
    Content type(s): Blog posts
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