“Next year will mark 50 years since I have started collecting coins. Today, there are more than 6,000 coins and banknotes from all over the world in my collection. I decided on the topic only 15 years ago: “Butterflies and Dragonflies on the Coins of the World”. Over the years, I have collected more than 1,000 coins, medals, and tokens with images of these insects. I’ve been contemplating the idea of creating a museum for a long time. But only in 2020, I was lucky to purchase a room in the historical center of Kasimov. In two months, we’ve renovated the place and submitted the project application to the Presidential Grants Foundation. That same year, we won the competition and on January 30, 2021, opened the museum. We implement the project of the Money Museum under the Presidential Grant of the Russian Federation provided by the Presidential Grants Foundation.” — Igor Alexandrovich Skripay, the museum founder and owner.
At the moment, the main exposition in the Money Museum presents a private collection of I.A. Skripay, consisting of more than 2,500 items related to the history and structure of money circulation. The museum will feature coins from the Roman Empire to the present day and banknotes from the first royal to modern plastic ones. The world’s largest collection of coins and banknotes depicting butterflies will be the highlight of the show. The exhibits include the largest (1000 g) silver coin from the Republic of Cuba and the smallest ( 0.5 g) gold coin from the Republic of Palau, as well as one of the first silver coins of the Roman Empire depicting a butterfly (denarius, 79 BC). Currently, the collection has more than 1,000 items, and the world’s first handbook on coins and banknotes depicting butterflies and dragonflies is being finalized for publication.
