If you love money –- its history, not having a lot of it –- you’ll love this place.
- A wealth of information on currency
- Big, roomy exhibits, well lighted and documented
- Friendly staff
- If you don’t like numismatic history and someone drags you here, you’ll be bored
- Impossible to take flash pix, everything is understandably in glass cases
- All that money and you can’t take any home!
- Address: Weststraat, Oranjestad, Aruba
- Phone: 297-582-8831
- Hours: Mon-Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Admission: $5 adults; children free; admission includes a souvenir coin
From an indistinct piece of gnarled metal from around 5,000 B.C., to a shiny and brand-spanking new Queen Beatrix commemorative coin, the museum has got it all in 11 fantastic, well-organized and easy-to-follow displays, with tours led by an expert numismatist.
One display featured local shell currency from the 15th century, another has coins from 16th-century Netherlands. An interesting display focuses on the mid-19th century, when a shortage of money led Aruba's governor to cut Spanish reales into pie-shaped pieces called “guillotines,” and which were used as currency for nearly a century.
All manner of economic history, including the establishment of the Jewish community on the islands of the Antilles. During World War II, Aruba was the largest supplier of aviation fuel for the U.S., and as Dutch royalty and government leaders fled to England to avoid attacks by the Germans, coins were minted in the United States for the Dutch colony; these are displayed at the museum, as well.
The Numismatic Museum is a fascinating place begun by a fascinating man, Juan Mario Odor, who in 1955 found a penny and half-penny in his yard in Aruba and began a lifetime of collection coins. He opened the museum in 1981. The two coins he found are on display here along with tens of thousands of others.
