Come visit us year-round and treat yourself to some of our self-guided activities. We’ve created some hip and fun tools to enhance your experience of the galleries. Our visitor experiences are story-based and highlight pieces of the National Currency Collection in new and surprising ways.
Pick up a paper copy of our Gallery Guide, an introduction to the Museum’s eight galleries. The Gallery Guide helps orient you to the major themes of each gallery and shows you how the objects on display from the National Currency Collection relate to the history of money and the economic development of Canada as a nation.
Download the Gallery Guide (244 KB)
Deceiving individuals by paying with fake money is criminal. But when a government is the issuer of a currency, counterfeiting becomes a crime of treason! Join us on an enlightening audio tour of a wide variety of counterfeits, ranging from cocoa beans filled with sand to sweated coins (coins shaken together in a bag to remove bits of metal) to hand-engraved counterfeit bank notes. Listen to the stories of some of the most notorious and colourful counterfeiters in Canada and learn more about contemporary security features that help protect our bank notes from counterfeiting.
The crime of counterfeiting is as old as money itself. Counterfeiting is considered a serious crime. Both the individual who is left with a valueless counterfeit and the issuer of the real coins and bills are defrauded. This fascinating audio tour takes you back on a journey through time to learn more about the creative ways of counterfeiting, and the equally creative punishments that were devised to stop this crime.
The great thing about money is that it interests everyone! From cocoa beans to playing card money to a 50,000 dollar note, the Museum has something for everyone! Money is such an integral part of human life that each visit stirs up all sorts of wild and wonderful stories!
— M. S., Staff
Travel back in time during our guided tours on the origins of money. Learn about the crazy forms that money can take and discover the unique history of Canadian bank notes, coins, and tokens. You’ll get a chance to see and touch different and unusual currencies from other countries and times past. You’ll also get a real-life lesson in how to tell the difference between a real and a counterfeit bill.
Download information on Guided Tours (232 KB)