The IMF Center's goal is to heighten public awareness and understanding of the IMF's role in today's global economy and the ways in which it serves its 183 member countries. This permanent exhibit tells the story of the international monetary system, how it affects our daily lives, and the role of the International Monetary Fund in the global economy. This collection of ancient coins is a historical representation of trade between ancient civilizations.
Coins serve historians as markers of time.
Trade played a key role in transforming attitudes toward precious metal - from it being valued chiefly as weighed bullion to it becoming equally acceptable in the form of coins. In the Near East, the monetary use of precious metals dates back to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. By 100 AD, camel caravans were routinely plying the Persian and Kushan Empires exchanging war horses for silk, bronze tools, carved jade, and medicinal herbs. The Seven Economists exhibit represents the theories of reknowned economists and thinkers, from Ancient Greece through the Middle Ages. From Plato to Adam Smith to John Meynard Keynes, these are the minds that helped shape global economic systems.