Mint Museum in Madrid, museo casa de la moneda

I was wrapping up a conference in Spain and I had a few extra hours in Madrid. Without a doubt, I knew that if I’ll have time for one more thing, it will be the Mint Museum, Museo Casa de la Moneda. Given that still most money museums are still not accessible, generally I make arrangements well in advance to visit and ask if they could provide a tactile experience for me. But since I wasn’t sure I would be able to make it, I didn’t want to ask for kindness and cancel the visit last minute.

Though I think this was the right decision, there could have been a lot to touch there. When I entered the museum at the reception a lady offered to guide me around the museum. Fortunately she didn’t speak English, as I really tried to use Spanish outside of the conference as much as possible.

First she showed me the guide app of the museum, which I could activate from a web site using a QR code. However, the application wasn’t very usable, so I had to ask her to start the first audio for me.. Then came the next problem, once I was done with one station, the app didn’t have directions on how to get to the next one. Also, given that everything was behind glass, I could have listened to it from home anyway. So, the lady took me around and explained what she can see behind glass as much as possible. There were major areas of the exhibit, and each station had a video people could watch. These I decided to watch in English, and I think that was another good decision, because the content was complex, not sure I would have understood everything in Spanish.

I listened to a video about ancient coins, the coins of Iberia, and minting techniques over the centuries. Again, this was something I could have listened to on Youtube if it was available.

The museum had absolutely nothing to touch, the first thing I laid my hands on was the coin I bought in the gift store afterwards. It is such a pity, because as people explained to me later, there would be so many opportunities to make some of the equipment, or at least their replicas available to touch.

However, I am glad I went, I would never miss a money museum, and also I know that next time I’m in Madrid, I will try to make arrangements in advance.

As I left the museum, I was talking with a gentleman on the street asking him about some good local food as I wasn’t familiar with the area. It turned out that he was working at the museum, though at the mail section so he didn’t know much about coins, but he took me to a nice bar, and since it was his lunch time, he helped me to order some great food.