Little plastic piggies fighting for trotter space with Donald Ducks and pottery owls - you could be forgiven for thinking that this exhibition is in a children's museum. But the venue is at the heart of the British establishment, the Bank of England Museum just off London's Threadneedle Street.
Pounds, Pence and Money Boxes is the museum's first temporary exhibition since it closed for a four-month redecoration. It opened in the week that the rise in commodity prices meant a two-pence piece was actually worth three pence. So it seemed particularly apt that the exhortation: 'Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves,' was emblazoned on one of the opening graphic panels.
Of course this exhibition is aimed at children, and the museum hopes to entice some family groups in with an easier introduction to the history of currency, before they dive into the trickier subjects of the modern economy and monetary policy that feature in the rest of the museum.
The substance of the new show is a collection of 484 money boxes donated to the museum by Iris Tutt from Stroud in 2005. More than two thirds of them are on public display for the first time and they are nothing if not an eclectic mix.
As an adult you immediately search for the familiar in collections like this and sure enough the purple Cadbury's money box is there. From memory there is no better reward for frugality than the immediate gratification of a mini bar of chocolate - and for just 2p - if only real banks rewarded savers in this way.
The money boxes form a backdrop for interpretation that explains how money works and a bit about its history. One of the first cases holds examples of early money, coins and Roman gold bars, but more interestingly, dotted among the money boxes, are examples of objects that have been used as currency around the world.
The 'feather' money from the Solomon Islands is particularly fascinating. The coils, used well into the 20th century, are made from the red feathers of small birds - the more feathers and the deeper the shade of red, the more the coil was worth.
These objects are intriguing and definitely more pleasing to the eye than the majority of the money boxes on display. The recurring themes soon become obvious: owls - presumably denoting the wiseness of the saver; branded money boxes from banks and building societies to encourage the young saver; and the 'saving for a purpose' money boxes.
Some of these are interesting as pieces of social history. The section includes boxes that were used to save to pay for bills, for example the telephone bill box. Aside from the fact that the contents of the box wouldn't go far towards a modern-day phone bill there can't be many people who pay their bills in cash these days. The His and Hers saving box is amusing: he is saving for fishing, poker and a night out with the boys; she is saving for a shopping spree, diamonds and a vacation (it's American needless to say).
My favourites were the retirement fund saving box - a rather glum-looking ceramic character with cap in hand (maybe this one isn't so out of date after all); and the poll tax saving box, which just begged the question did anyone really pay it?
But once the pleasure of finding a favourite is over, the mess of plastic and pottery, and the garish colours merges into one. This is nothing to do with how the objects are shown - the cabinets are ideal for the target audience and the interpretation is well written for the age group it is aimed at. In fact the simple explanation of inflation was a real 'too much money chasing too few goods' beginners' guide to how the economy works and what role the Bank of England plays in it.
The problem is that the objects themselves are just not that nice to look at - one pink plastic pig is much the same as another and the variations on owls, telephone boxes and cartoon characters don't do much to alleviate the overall impression of tat.
Aesthetics aside, when you take on a collection like this it's not about the individual objects but more about what stories they can tell and how they can help to open doors to the rest of the collection - which is what the museum has thought about here.
As luck would have it the display is right next to the museum shop and a quick perusal reveals that they do indeed sell their own Bank of England piggy bank. Unsurprisingly it is blue, plastic and rather tasteless.
Pounds, Pence and Money Boxes is on until 1 November
Pounds, Pence and Money Boxes is the museum's first temporary exhibition since it closed for a four-month redecoration. It opened in the week that the rise in commodity prices meant a two-pence piece was actually worth three pence. So it seemed particularly apt that the exhortation: 'Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves,' was emblazoned on one of the opening graphic panels.
Of course this exhibition is aimed at children, and the museum hopes to entice some family groups in with an easier introduction to the history of currency, before they dive into the trickier subjects of the modern economy and monetary policy that feature in the rest of the museum.
The substance of the new show is a collection of 484 money boxes donated to the museum by Iris Tutt from Stroud in 2005. More than two thirds of them are on public display for the first time and they are nothing if not an eclectic mix.
As an adult you immediately search for the familiar in collections like this and sure enough the purple Cadbury's money box is there. From memory there is no better reward for frugality than the immediate gratification of a mini bar of chocolate - and for just 2p - if only real banks rewarded savers in this way.
The money boxes form a backdrop for interpretation that explains how money works and a bit about its history. One of the first cases holds examples of early money, coins and Roman gold bars, but more interestingly, dotted among the money boxes, are examples of objects that have been used as currency around the world.
The 'feather' money from the Solomon Islands is particularly fascinating. The coils, used well into the 20th century, are made from the red feathers of small birds - the more feathers and the deeper the shade of red, the more the coil was worth.
These objects are intriguing and definitely more pleasing to the eye than the majority of the money boxes on display. The recurring themes soon become obvious: owls - presumably denoting the wiseness of the saver; branded money boxes from banks and building societies to encourage the young saver; and the 'saving for a purpose' money boxes.
Some of these are interesting as pieces of social history. The section includes boxes that were used to save to pay for bills, for example the telephone bill box. Aside from the fact that the contents of the box wouldn't go far towards a modern-day phone bill there can't be many people who pay their bills in cash these days. The His and Hers saving box is amusing: he is saving for fishing, poker and a night out with the boys; she is saving for a shopping spree, diamonds and a vacation (it's American needless to say).
My favourites were the retirement fund saving box - a rather glum-looking ceramic character with cap in hand (maybe this one isn't so out of date after all); and the poll tax saving box, which just begged the question did anyone really pay it?
But once the pleasure of finding a favourite is over, the mess of plastic and pottery, and the garish colours merges into one. This is nothing to do with how the objects are shown - the cabinets are ideal for the target audience and the interpretation is well written for the age group it is aimed at. In fact the simple explanation of inflation was a real 'too much money chasing too few goods' beginners' guide to how the economy works and what role the Bank of England plays in it.
The problem is that the objects themselves are just not that nice to look at - one pink plastic pig is much the same as another and the variations on owls, telephone boxes and cartoon characters don't do much to alleviate the overall impression of tat.
Aesthetics aside, when you take on a collection like this it's not about the individual objects but more about what stories they can tell and how they can help to open doors to the rest of the collection - which is what the museum has thought about here.
As luck would have it the display is right next to the museum shop and a quick perusal reveals that they do indeed sell their own Bank of England piggy bank. Unsurprisingly it is blue, plastic and rather tasteless.
Pounds, Pence and Money Boxes is on until 1 November
