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Unexpected coin museum
Automan
Posts: 85
Hi All,
A couple of weeks ago I found myself in Maputo*, a city characterized by numerous broad avenues (bearing the names of mostly dead communist dictators), poorly maintained buildings and an enormous number of Japanese cars manufactured in the 1990s. A general sense of dereliction pervades, but Maputo is absolutely not a city without charm, partly a consequence of its location directly on the Indian Ocean.
Imagine then my amazement at finding a coin museum in the middle of this city! And not only that; it's house in what is apparently Maputo's oldest building, and quite possibly also its best kept one.
On display is a substantial collection of coins and banknotes. Not surprisingly the better pieces are from the Portuguese colonial era (including some gold coins), although there are also literally thousands of modern coins and currency from all over the world presented in display cases in seven or eight rooms. However, someone has gone to the trouble of polishing every single coin in the museum, so to a collector a visit might be a little bit upsetting (the practice of polishing coins, I understand, is in the best Portuguese tradition).
Anyhow, should anyone find him or herself in Maputo, the coin museum is well worth a visit, especially considering its modest entrance fee of 20 "mets" (short for meticais, 20 of which roughly correspond to US$0.60).
Auto
*Capital of Mozambique
A couple of weeks ago I found myself in Maputo*, a city characterized by numerous broad avenues (bearing the names of mostly dead communist dictators), poorly maintained buildings and an enormous number of Japanese cars manufactured in the 1990s. A general sense of dereliction pervades, but Maputo is absolutely not a city without charm, partly a consequence of its location directly on the Indian Ocean.
Imagine then my amazement at finding a coin museum in the middle of this city! And not only that; it's house in what is apparently Maputo's oldest building, and quite possibly also its best kept one.
On display is a substantial collection of coins and banknotes. Not surprisingly the better pieces are from the Portuguese colonial era (including some gold coins), although there are also literally thousands of modern coins and currency from all over the world presented in display cases in seven or eight rooms. However, someone has gone to the trouble of polishing every single coin in the museum, so to a collector a visit might be a little bit upsetting (the practice of polishing coins, I understand, is in the best Portuguese tradition).
Anyhow, should anyone find him or herself in Maputo, the coin museum is well worth a visit, especially considering its modest entrance fee of 20 "mets" (short for meticais, 20 of which roughly correspond to US$0.60).
Auto
*Capital of Mozambique
A grade is an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgement by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a coin corresponds to an undefinable level of an unattainable state of preservation. - Never tell me that grading is science.
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Comments
Well, just Love coins, period.
Sounds like a very interesting musuem.
Collecting:
Conder tokens
19th & 20th Century coins from Great Britain and the Realm