Guangzhou Museum of Currency and Finance

Guangzhou Museum of Currency and Finance

The Guangzhou Museum of Currency and Finance is located on the campus of Guangdong University of Finance in Longyandong, Tianhe, adjacent to the South China Botanical Garden and Longyandong Forest Park. Surrounded by picturesque landscapes, the area boasts fresh and pleasant scenery.

Since its establishment in September 1995 and official recognition in 2001 by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture, the museum has leveraged its unique focus on the currency and finance industry. Utilizing its rich collection, it plays a significant role in enhancing students’ abilities to recognize, identify, and research currency, as well as strengthening practical teaching in currency experiments. It has become a key site for understanding the long history and rich cultural heritage of currency from both China and abroad.

The museum currently houses a collection of 35,000 physical currency items, spans an area of 1,600 square meters, and features a 1,000-meter exhibition line. It showcases currencies from various historical periods across ancient and modern times, both in China and internationally. The exhibits are divided into ten sections: Ancient Chinese Currency, Currency of the Republican Era, Currency from Revolutionary Base Areas, Currency of New China, Gold and Silver Commemorative Coins, Currency of Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, Electronic Currency, Financial Instruments, World Currencies, and Anti-Counterfeit Currency. This extensive collection of currency artifacts authentically reflects the development of currency and finance through the ages. The museum serves not only as a practical training base for currency theory and anti-counterfeiting education within the university, but also as a hub for currency culture exchange among peer institutions and a training center for bank anti-counterfeiting efforts. As a publicly shared industry-specific museum resource in the Guangzhou area, it is open to the public all day.

A series of coin-related research projects utilizing museum resources have achieved fruitful results: co-founding the magazine “Guangdong Currency” with the Guangdong Numismatic Society; collaborating with Guangzhou Yongzheng Commemorative Coin Co., Ltd. to explore industry-academia-research integration projects; completing the 2004 Guangdong Provincial Higher Education Modern Educational Technology “151 Project” titled “China Currency and Finance Expo,” the 2005 Tianhe District, Guangzhou project “Research on Network-Based Currency Recognition Systems,” the 2009 Tianhe District science popularization project “Development of the Guangzhou Museum of Currency and Finance Science Popularization Information System,” and the 2010 Tianhe District science popularization project “Construction of an Intelligent Multimedia-Based Anti-Counterfeit Currency Science Exhibition Hall.” These achievements have now become shared educational resources for currency and finance studies in Guangdong universities and public science education resources. In 2006, the museum was approved as a Tianhe District Science Education Base, and in 2007, it was approved as a Guangzhou City Science Education Base.

Nationwide, there are many museums dedicated to the theme of currency, but they vary greatly in scale and exhibit content. This museum stands out with significant advantages and distinctive features in terms of collection size, scope of content, transformation of research outcomes, digital development, and sharing of financial education resources. With a mission to disseminate currency knowledge and promote currency culture—encompassing both ancient and modern, domestic and international—the museum strives continuously to write new chapters in the currency culture of China and the world.

The Guangzhou Museum of Currency and Finance is open to the public free of charge. Opening hours are from 9:00 to 16:30, Monday to Friday. The museum is closed during winter and summer vacations, as well as on weekends and holidays (except for special circumstances).

Address: 5th and 6th Floors, Library Building, Guangdong University of Finance, Longdong, Tianhe District, Guangzhou

Transportation: Bus routes 39 and 30 to Guangdong University of Finance Terminal

Postal Code: 510521

Further Reading:

· National Third-Class Museum of China