National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus



Ancient Money of the East – Silver and Paper

  • 02.08.2019

On August 2, 2019, at 17.00, the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus will open the international exhibition – "Ancient Money of the East – Silver and Paper" – organized jointly with the Shenyang Finance Museum (People's Republic of China).

The Shenyang Finance Museum is located in the capital of Liaoning Province, Shenyang. This is one of the largest and most popular financial profile museums in China, which carefully preserves the traditions of the commercial and business capital in the north–east of China. In 2018, the Shenyang Finance Museum signed a cooperation agreement with the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus.

The museum has an unique collection of more than 6,000 coins, banknotes, bullions and other money used in China from ancient times to the present day. The exhibition in Minsk will feature exact copies of the monetary units of China, silver ingots and banknotes from the era of the Tang dynasty (VII – X centuries AD) until the end of the Qing dynasty (beginning of the XX century). The originals will feature modern collectible coins and banknotes of China, showing the preservation of the traditions of the ancient masters.

The “Ancient Money of the East – Silver and Paper” exhibition will introduce the peculiarities of the traditional financial system in China. The exposition of the Shenyang Finance Museum will show what role silver ingots played in the economy of Chinese civilization, the appearence and development of paper money, which surprised and delighted Marco Polo in one’s time. Visitors will discover little–known pages of the history of the ancient civilization, see the modern money of the People's Republic of China.

The joint exhibition project of the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus and the Shenyang Finance Museum will help deepen the friendship between Belarus and China, and allow the people of our countries to come to know each other better.

The exhibition works until August 18.

Project monitor: Lesin Alexey Alexandrovich, Researcher of the Research and methodological department of the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus (+375 44 780–86–53).

The project is implemented within the framework of a Memorandum of cooperation signed between the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus and the Shenyang Finance Museum.