Banca Naţională a României (BNR)

The Museum of the National Bank of Romania has valuable collections, mainly made up of numismatic items (coins, banknotes, medals), documents, shares and bonds.

The museum collections are scientifically organized and used in exhibitions or for writing promotional materials or scientific papers and offer a chronological image of Romania’s monetary past and the history of the National Bank of Romania.

Furthermore, our museum sees to diversifying its cultural offer by a constant, balanced and selective development of its collections, and by attracting visitors’ interest in a valuable and unique museum display.

1. Our Numismatic Collection is made up of very diverse items, both in terms of chronology and in terms of type.

Primitive Money

Pre-coin items were used as a means of payment or hoarding before the creation of money as it is known today. The Museum of the NBR owns a selection of primitive money in the shape of arrowheads, leaves and dolphins.

Coins

The coins found in the collections of the museum cover a long period of time, of over two and a half millennia. From a chronological point of view, the oldest coins were issued by the Greek colonies on the West coast of the Black Sea (Histria, Tomis, Callatis). The Museum of the National Bank holds the largest hoard of Histrian silver coins found to this day that were discovered in Dobruja.

Macedonian coins issued by King Philip II and Alexander the Great, Roman coins (republican, imperial and provincial), as well as Byzantine coins are all well represented in our collection. The hoard of Pitești, comprising 19 gold aurei of Gordian III, is one of the most important in our collection.

Naturally, a special attention has been granted to Getae-Dacian coinage, which is characterized by a large variety of monetary types, different from each other according to the time and place of issue. The most important ones are the Koson-type gold staters, among the most valuable coins ever to have circulated over the territory of nowadays Romania. The NBR Museum holds 198 such coins, part of an important hoard that was discovered in 1996 in the county of Hunedoara.

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The museum’s rich numismatic collections are brought into the spotlight by the showcase of more than 3,000 pieces of remarkable historic and artistic value, many of which have never been exhibited before.

The visitors will view 13 monetary hoards and hoard fragments, testimonies of the intense socio-political and economic activities that had taken place on the territory of present-day Romania from ancient to modern times. Among the most interesting hoards exhibited are the biggest hoard of drachms issued by the city of Histria in the 4th century BC, a hoard fragment comprising 211 Koson type gold Dacian staters, the biggest hoard of aurei discovered in Romania so far, a hoard of more than 1,000 European gold and silver coins dating from the 14th century or a hoard fragment of 92 lion-thalers, the forerunner of our national currency.