The RBI Monetary Museum - A Collection of Monetary Treasure

The RBI Monetary Museum - A Collection of Monetary Treasure 


Could you imagine living a life without money? Of course not, right? Money is a really crucial thing in today's world. It's not the most important thing but it is vital for a living. 

Money is a current medium of exchange in the form of bank notes, coins or cash. Primarily, it has four functions :-

1) Medium of exchange 

2) Unit of account 

3) Store of value 

4) Standard of Deferred payment 

India was one of the earliest issuers of coins and is home to numerous monetary items. Recently, I visited the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Monetary Museum which is located in Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is filled with tons of monetary items and information of how the monetary system developed. From the coinage with innumerable coins of different eras to paper money, mechanical and electrical calculators. From ancient cheques to the RBI book of the bank and descriptions of Governors of India. From how the barter system changed to the current money descriptions.


It just has everything that makes us proud and appreciate India's heritage. 

I was amazed by the various coins and paper money that changed across all these years. There were coins like the Satavahana coins that mainly had symbols of bulls, lions, hills, Goddess Lakshmi standing or seated, ships, horses, human figures, wheels and many more. All coins depicted a story of a certain era, either AD or BC or the current era. 

Furthermore, the coins were each made of a different type of metal. Some were made of copper, lead, silver, bronze, gold, alloys, aluminium, magnesium. 


The place just didn't have coins or paper money, but calculators - mechanical or electrical, ancient weighing scales, tools of trade, coin cutters, descriptions of the governors of India and the transformation of the huge size to the smaller size of paper money.

Isn't it such a great place to visit? A museum set up to document and preserve India's monetary heritage, to present it to the public. It encourages us to research more into the evolution of money in India. 

-Kavya Mehta 

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