On the International Museum Day, the National Bank of Ukraine has launched a virtual tour of the NBU Museum of Money under the auspices of the USAID Financial Sector Development Project (FINREP). The virtual tour has been developed by the Ukrainian company “3DTOUR”.

The virtual tour of the Museum offers every visitor an opportunity to get acquainted with the museum exhibits with the help of a computer and get information on the history of money in Ukraine. The Virtual Museum of Money provides an opportunity to enhance the image of Ukraine, popularize the national currency worldwide, which is becoming especially topical given the upcoming Euro 2012 football championship.

The Museum of Money of the National Bank of Ukraine opened its doors to visitors in March 2004. Its exposition tells about the money circulation in Ukraine from the ancient times to nowadays. Primitive forms of money, ancient, medieval coins, money circulated in the Russian Empire and banknotes of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, as well as money of the Soviet period and contemporary independent Ukraine.

The virtual tour of the Museum of Money offers visitors an opportunity to look at all the showcases. Some exhibits are in the form of 3D-photo objects, which enables visitors to look at the coins by rotating objects around their own axle.

In particular, the exposition includes:

- pre-monetary forms of money (primitive commodity money),

- coins of the Northern Black Sea Coast,

- coins of the Roman Empire in the territory of Ukraine,

- dirhams of the Arabian Caliphate and coins of the Byzantine Empire, which circulated in the Ukrainian lands,

- coins of Kyiv Rus as symbols of statehood,

- coinless period of the 12th – 14th centuries,

- silver hryvnia bullions as a means of payment,

- currency circulation in Ukraine in the 14th-15th centuries  ,

- the monetary system during the World War I,

- gold coins of the Russian Empire struck under Aleksander III and Nicholas II,

- money under the Provisional Government,

- money of the Ukrainian People’s Republic,

- money of the Ukrainian State,

- Ukrainian money under the Directorate of Ukraine,

- regional banknotes of Zhytomyr, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Odesa and the Crimea,

- first Soviet coins,

- silver coins of the Soviet period of 1921-1923 and the souvenir chervonets of 1923,

- treasury notes of 1934 and chervontsy of 1937,

- commemorative and jubilee coins of the Soviet Union,

- Ukrainian Karbovanets of the 1992-1996 transition period,

- Ukrainian hryvnia,

- commemorative and jubilee coins of the Independent Ukraine.

The virtual tour is conducted in Ukrainian, Russian and English. You can also view the text descriptions of each showcase, which is especially important for people with hearing impairments. The virtual tour interface is unified to make it intuitive to use.