The Money Musuem

It almost makes you shake when you hear the words Federal Reserve Bank, but don’t fear!  The Money Museum may be located in the Federal Reserve Bank in downtown Chicago, but is isn’t scary. Okay going through the metal detector may be a little scary, but once inside, it is all information and history!

Who knew inside this solemn and important institution that is one of 19 throughout the country in charge of keeping our economy on track that there is this interesting museum?

The museum shares history about how we as Americans really didn’t trust anyone to tell us how to manage our money and it took 3 times to create and finally come up with a stable system to manage it -and voila the Federal Reserve.

My favorite part of this museum was not so much the banking history but the military part how the wars changed money in America and the different currency they evoked.

As a farmer’s wife, I was also interested in the fact that money is not made from paper, but actually mostly from cotton!  Did you know that?  Our economy really does depend on the farmer!

The other favorite part of the museum was a cube filled with dollars that showed what a cube of a million dollar bills would look like.  Since that is probably as close as I will ever get to a stack of dough that big, it was neat to see this revolving money mound!

With Smart Money Week beginning April 21 – 28, 2018 this was the perfect stop.  To find out more ways to search free money management classes and activities nationwide, log onto moneysmartweek.org.