Description of the attraction
The Paper Money Museum in Corfu Town is a unique museum in Greece. It is one of the few museums of its kind in the world with the most complete collection. The museum was founded in 1981 and is located on the first floor of a historic building, which was built around 1840 by the local architect Ioanis Chronis. This building once housed the first branch of the Ionian Bank of Corfu.
The museum exhibits a rich collection of banknotes, as well as coins, bank documents, ledgers, checks, stamps, archival documents, photographs, etc. The museum contains an almost complete collection of Greek banknotes, from the first, which were printed in 1822, to the last, which were withdrawn from circulation in 2002 with the introduction of the "euro". This exhibition showcases the complete history of the evolution of Greek banknotes and has about 2,000 items.
Among the rarest museum exhibits, it is worth highlighting banknotes depicting the Byzantine Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople without Ottoman minarets, issued in 1920 and were never distributed. Of interest are also banknotes issued under the first governor of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias. The museum also displays rare Art Deco notes printed in France depicting Hermes, banknotes issued by the occupying forces during World War II, and 100 billion drachma notes from the hyperinflationary period in 1944.
In 2005, after the renovation of the building and a radical reorganization of the collection in accordance with the highest modern standards, the museum was opened to the public. In July 2007, the second floor of the building was equipped to host art exhibitions and other cultural events.
In the museum you can see a visual presentation of the modern process of making banknotes, from sketch to engraving with printing.
Today, the Paper Money Museum is one of the most visited museums in Corfu.
