IF you haven’t already, you should take a tour of the Bank of Jamaica’s Money Museum.

The museum is free and open to the public, and we at TEENage think everybody should take the time to have a look at the exhibits and learn a bit about the history of money.

The first few minutes of the tour give you a quick introduction to the concept of money as a medium of exchange and some of the earliest forms of money. Historic civilisations used varying objects for money — the Chinese used shells while West Africans used iron rods and copper rings.

But the exhibits get really interesting when you start to look at the first coins.

Coins weren’t originally circular; they actually started out shaped as hoes and knives then evolved into their present form. You can see some of these artefacts, preserved over many centuries, on display. They are owned by the Bank of Jamaica and were purchased from various collectors.

It wasn’t until the Seventh century in China that the concept of paper money evolved, and this type of money only became widespread in the 10th century. The museum has various paper notes on display, including an original 23cm x 33cm note from 14th century China, definitely one of the cooler artefacts.

Then we get into the history of money in Jamaica, which is surely the highlight of the museum.

The exhibit tracks the history of our money from the Tainos, to the Spaniards, then the British and finally our own independent currency.

Taino coins, Spanish dollars, Christian Quatties, ha’pennies, tallies, colonial bank notes, Jamaican shillings, our recent decimal system notes and much more are all on display.

But if you ask any of us at TEENage what the best part of the tour was, the answer would be putting our Jamaican bank notes under the ultraviolet light display. Our money is printed in England by Thomas De La Rue PLC and is filled with intricate designs and patterns that you can only see under a UV light. You’d be amazed at this side of your money that you’ve never seen before.

There is much to learn and we are sure that you won’t look at money the same way after you see the bags of shredded notes that have been taken out of circulation.

So, if you find yourself with some free time this summer, you should definitely consider a visit to the Money Museum. It’s not just informative, but also interesting. And at the end of the day you won’t regret the visit.

TEENage definitely recommends it!

— Damien Chang