The Coin Museum is definitely one of Bogota's best, most original museums. Here's a quick overview tour of just some of what's in store for visitors.

1. HOUSE of COINS MUSEUM
Bogota, Colombia

2. During the Colonial Period of Colombia
and other developing regions, a way of
exchanging value in trading needed to
be established

3. Barter and Gold
were
soon widely
accepted

4. Bags of gold dust or gold
nuggets were difficult to
measure and
not precise in size or weight …

5. … so small stamped ingots or
coins were produced to make
controlling the weight or
amount easier to disperse
when trading

6. an early period
stamped gold

7. As coin minting presses
became larger …

8. … with more
precise
minting dies
and …

9. … greater
sophistication

10. … likewise,
coins became
more
sophisticated
with
standardized
text and images
denoting their
origin, weight
and the
government

11. Coin minting
die
design from
1762

12. Coin
minting
presses
continued
to evolve …

13. … becoming larger, faster, more powerful
and more spophisticated with passing

14. Governments produced standardized
weights to verify coin shipment quantity.
This is a 12.5 kilogram weight from 1629
Spain

15. For transporting large amounts of gold and metal
coins aboard ships or across land, the three-lock
strong box was invented for safe keeping. Each
key was held by a different person so no one
person could open the box

16. Alonso Turrillo
de Yerba, Army
Captain,
engineer, and
financier was
one such
person so
entrusted by
the Spanish
government

17. Even more sophisticated
safes developed in the

18. By the mid-1800s
to early 1900s,
safes featured
multiple
combination
locks, and all
metal, fire proof
construction for
storing gold,
stamped coins
and the dies used
to produce them.

19. Now you can relax in
the Coin Museum
courtyard

20. To learn more, take the
tour
Photos and presentation
by:
Prof. Larry M. Lynch
proflmlynch@gmail.com