About the Museum
The Money Museum is located in the building of the former Montenegrin Bank, declared a cultural monument, and enjoys state protection. Former counters, a vault and other facilities in this building were converted into exhibition areas, providing visitors with an opportunity to experience Montenegro’s history of money and general through its rich exhibition.
In the Money Museum, visitors can see the exhibition “Money in Montenegro”, containing valuable and rare specimens of denominations of different values, covering many periods of the area’s turbulent history. From the oldest exhibition exhibit, a stater of Alexander the Great, to the coins of Byzantine, Venetian and Slavic rulers, among which the money of the Montenegrin Balšić dynasty, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian coins stand out, the Museum’s exhibition provides an insight into the long period preceding the turning point in Montenegrin monetary history, the creation of the first state currency - Montenegrin para and perper.
In addition to the state’s coins, the central motif of the permanent exhibition, the exhibit contains coins and banknotes from the era of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, from all forms of Yugoslavia, from the Kingdom to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The display is rounded off by exhibited samples of the German Mark, the legal tender from 1999 to 2002 and the banknotes and coins of the euro used in Montenegro since 2002.
Within the exhibition “Money in Montenegro”, visitors can see original videos from 1910, showing the celebration in Cetinje in the summer of 1910 on Montenegro’s declaration Montenegro as a Kingdom, and the videos of the post-war construction of roads, railways and factories in the Socialist Republic of Montenegro.
The permanent exhibition “Money as Jewellery” shows the representative pieces of jewellery made of coins after they stopped being legal tender. A necklace made of Montenegrin paras stands out among the exhibition items. In addition, visitors can see jewellery made of Austrian, Serbian, Russian and Serbian coins and coins from other countries circulating in Montenegro.
The coin minting machine from 1849, on which the first Montenegrin coin was minted, stands out among the exhibition exhibits. It was received as a gift from the Vienna Mint in 2006 to celebrate 100 years of minting the first Montenegrin coin. The machine is completely repaired and functional. Today, it mints souvenirs – perper, which visitors may buy at a symbolic price as a memory for visiting the Money Museum.