The Bank of Canada Museum’s doors may not be open, but artifacts and rare items are still being added to the collection.
Among the most recent acquisitions to the under-renovation museum’s collection are stock certificates for Canadian North Pacific Fisheries Ltd., issued in 1911. There is also a gas card form the Standard Oil Company of British Columbia dated 1947. One of the colonial coins acquired features an image of Louis XIV and dates back to 1676.
Other recent additions include glass coins from the Byzantine Empire that date back to the 6th and 7th centuries. The bank also acquired silver coins from 5th century BC from the Indian kingdom of Gandhara (now Afghanistan and Pakistan). These coins were among the first to feature anti-counterfeit measures, as they were made carefully to a standardized weight.
Chief Curator Paul Berry says that a focus of the new acquisitions has been on broadening the scope of the collection beyond just currency (coins and bank notes).
“You can expect a greater emphasis upon bank roles and responsibilities, and the economic history of Canada as well as the monetary history of Canada. It’s going to be quite a difference, as well as in terms of form,” says Berry.
This shift in focus coincides with the changing of the name of the museum. Upon its closure in 2013, the former Canadian Currency Museum shed its name and became the Bank of Canada Museum.
The museum’s central location at 245 Sparks St. has been closed since 2013 as a part of a $460-million project to renovate it and the bank’s Wellington Street headquarters.
Amongst the recent non-currency additions are also debit cards and many early forms of credit cards.
“They’re not a form of money per se,” says Berry, “but they’re a part of most monetary transactions in Canada. For that reason we though it would be appropriate to build a collection of that sort of material as well.”
Berry says the new museum’s opening in 2017 will give the museum and collection some much-needed change.
“The old museum was quite a good museum but it was showing its age, a lot of permanent exhibits. It didn’t have much in the way of modern interactives whereas you can expect the new exhibit to have a number of those in keeping with modern museum development trends,” says Berry.
Berry says the closure has not affected the safety or transportation of new additions to the gallery’s collection.
“The closure mostly affected the public galleries. It didn’t affect the actual process in terms of our handling of the collection. We had to move it (the permanent installment) of course, but the processes are essentially the same.”
Museum representative Rebecca Ryall says the museum’s opening can be expected in 2017.