Bank of Canada Museum
Bank of Canada Museum
4.5
Monday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
About
Enter the heart of the economic system and explore fun, hands-on, interactive exhibits that cover everything from how people’s expectations affect the health of an economy to how inflation targeting works (hint: you get to fly a rocket ship!). The Museum also features artifacts from the National Currency Collection -- the most complete collection of Canadian coins, notes and tokens in the world.
Duration: 1-2 hours
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.5
227 reviews
Excellent
125
Very good
71
Average
23
Poor
6
Terrible
2
Codiak!
Abbotsford, Canada12,016 contributions
Sep 2022
The Bank of Canada museum in Ottawa showcases the many currencies from countries all over the world. If you can think of a country you will likely be able to find its bill here. The museum demonstrates the currency manufacturing process and even has interactive displays explaining how economies work in a fun way, believe it or not. If you are Canadian check out past Canadian bill collections to take a trip down memory lane as you will recognize the different designs from your youth.
Written September 20, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
MikeyTravel
Mount Holly, NJ657 contributions
Jun 2023 • Family
This museum is a great place to see the history of money. Even if you are not from Canada, you will still appreciate the exhibits, which include the history of money, and include historical samples of money from around the world. There was also a temporary exhibit geared towards kids (perhaps age 10+) that discuss basic economic principles. It was very well done, and is not specific to Canada. The museum has numerous interactive kiosks that make it good for kids and adults alike. Another cool thing, there is no admission fee for the museum. Highly recommend it when visiting Ottawa.
Written June 24, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
wayne p
Edmonton, Canada262 contributions
Nov 2023 • Friends
Huge waste of time. You do get to see different currencies and old cda bills. But you are better off to see cda mint. You don't see anything in relation to money making compared the the cda mint. Google stuff it's better.
Written November 6, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dubes13
Peterborough, UK145 contributions
Jul 2023 • Family
Centrally located and free to visit, this is a good place on a rainy day with young children as there are lots of interactive things for them to do.
The staff were helpful and explained that the noises and vibrations from the overhead construction were normal, which is good as they were quite disconcerting!
We spent about half an hour in here but with young children, could have spent about an hour. We had fun designing our own banknotes, which you can email to yourself.
They have toilets and a small giftshop.
The staff were helpful and explained that the noises and vibrations from the overhead construction were normal, which is good as they were quite disconcerting!
We spent about half an hour in here but with young children, could have spent about an hour. We had fun designing our own banknotes, which you can email to yourself.
They have toilets and a small giftshop.
Written July 22, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Rachel S
Stratford, Canada24 contributions
Mar 2023 • Family
It is very interactive which is fantastic! You see real money from around the world. Saw a stack of bills from the world trade center that was recovered from there really neat! The kids designed their own face on a bill.
Written March 26, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Bob S
Warrenville, IL1,574 contributions
Jul 2020
An interesting walk through. I stumbled across the museum by chance. It's interesting entrance is absolutely a pleasure to see. It looks like a sunken building, an interesting metaphor for the banking industry? A numismatist's delight for Canadian coins.
Written July 30, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Valise
80 contributions
Aug 2024 • Family
The new Currency Museum in Ottawa, was for me, a tech nightmare. The old one, by its garden with Yap Stone, was hands-on with excellent explanatory panels and a variety of subjects: money, finance, art, history... Here I was given a bracelet that I had to initialize in a computer to do all the activities and access explanations. Then I was directed down a dark, blue-lit hall that was very disorienting to more computers. Yes, there were artefacts but I never did find out how to access all the information. The main theme, the only real theme I could see, was finance. The display cabinets were too high on the wall to see the actual artefacts up close rather than virtually. The gift shop was small and had much less than it used to.
Written August 20, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
AdamDunn
Toronto, Canada35 contributions
I thought this place was pretty cool.
It's inside a mall kind of place but easy to find and ALWAYS free.
I went there one afternoon as it was close and free and spent about 2 hours there. There's activities for kids but I would say adults would get more out of it.
It starts off with a history of currency, then they have like every bill ever produced in Canada, with a history of the currency of the country, from the time local banks issued money (Bank of Toronto, $5) to present day. They had money with the King on it, the $1000 bill which I've never seen, loads of stuff, all very interactive.
At the end they have a section on counterfeiting with some counterfeit bills to compare to real ones and a workshop on how to spot a fake bill.
Quite excellent, and did I mention free?
It's inside a mall kind of place but easy to find and ALWAYS free.
I went there one afternoon as it was close and free and spent about 2 hours there. There's activities for kids but I would say adults would get more out of it.
It starts off with a history of currency, then they have like every bill ever produced in Canada, with a history of the currency of the country, from the time local banks issued money (Bank of Toronto, $5) to present day. They had money with the King on it, the $1000 bill which I've never seen, loads of stuff, all very interactive.
At the end they have a section on counterfeiting with some counterfeit bills to compare to real ones and a workshop on how to spot a fake bill.
Quite excellent, and did I mention free?
Written April 18, 2008
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
acceber92
County Durham, UK229 contributions
Aug 2019
If I’m honest, we came in here to shelter from a thunder storm while in downtown thinking it would fill in a half hour. What a pleasant surprise this place was! It was very different to any museum I’ve done before. On entry you get a wristband and create an avatar that travels through the museum with you. All of the exhibits are interactive and very interesting. In the end we were in here for over an hour and had a great time. Be sure to pay this place a visit when you’re in downtown.
Written August 20, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Glad you enjoyed your impromptu visit (and that we could keep you dry!). Hope you're able to visit us again soon.
Written August 21, 2019
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Dmitry L
Kitchener, Canada24 contributions
Jul 2017 • Family
Briefly: the museum may impress those who have never been in money museums before, but in my opinion, it changed to the worse compared to what it used to be before the renovation and rebranding.
Last summer I finally made it, together with my son, to the Bank of Canada Museum, reopened after a 4-year-long renovation. The museum turned out to be quiet, calm and almost empty. I came back a few weeks later - still no crowds. What a surprise.
Being a staunch numismatist, I had been waiting long for this reopening. I remember what the former Currency Museum used to be before its closure in 2013. Last time I was there, I was impressed and astonished by its huge collection of coins and banknotes, from the most ancient specimens (the Ancient Greece and Rome, East Asia etc.) up to comprehensive and huge collections of circulation and commemorative coins of all countries of the world. On the walls there were big glass showcases and "books" containing multiple showcase "sheets" with coins and banknotes sorted by countries and periods, which I liked to look at for hours.
News number one: the museum has moved. Not too far away, actually. Instead of the Bank of Canada building it is currently located right next door.
Visitors could pick a bracelet at the counter to touch displays or buttons on the wall. This detail looked suspicious, with regard to what I was supposed to expect. I remembered to see such a feature at exhibitions for small kids, sometimes for teens, but not for adults definitely. The previous museum did contain a lot of interesting things for kids, not electronic but rather materials (things to touch, to draw, crafts, stamps etc).
Then we went through a dark passage with mysteriously glowing blue lights, which led us to gallery #1. The same blue lights were part of the whole museum interior design.
On the wall in the first gallery I saw old Canadian stock securities; they used to be the most popular form (and quite risky) form of pension savings for Canadians before they got the current system of pension savings. Simple keeping money on bank accounts was more secure, but inflation usually depreciated that type of savings.
Gallery # 2 presented a general overview of Canadian economy, but frankly, it looked quite modest compared to what I could see in the previous museum (for example, it lacked items of trade between European settlers and Aborigines and prices for those items). I think those exhibits were relocated (please correct me if I am wrong) to the storage of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau (formerly the Civilization Museum).
There was a curious showcase about hyperinflation in various countries: Hungary (1945-1947), Germany (1922-1923), Zimbabwe (recent)... oh yes, and Belarus of course; we helped two Canadian visitors identify an exotic banknote with texts in an incomprehensible language - and it was indeed Belarus.
The second part of Gallery # 2 represented money of the world in XX-XXI centuries. About a dozen countries per continent, about 2-6 coins and (in the best case) a single banknote per country - and that was all. All that remains from the previously huge collection. My heart was broken.
Finally, the third gallery contained a very brief overview of the modern Canadian banknotes and coinage.
My numismatist's grief was a bit relieved by my trip to the monthly show of coin and stamp collectors, just a couple of hours before, at RA Centre. Believe or not, what I saw there was way richer and more interesting than the museum's current collection.
Briefly speaking, while the previous version of the museum (before renovation) seemed to focus on adult and knowledgeable visitors with picky taste, the current one rather targets curious schoolchildren and absolute beginners. Speaking about beginners, there used to be a gift shop in the old version, which offered books, souvenirs and even packages of small coins for beginners - now it's all gone. So be it. As long as there are numismatic shops, I'll survive.
Summary. The "pros" of the new museum: lots of interactive screens (which, apparently, were not that numerous in the previous museums) and very interesting interior design. The entrance is free, doors are opened 7 days a week, 10 to 17. However, the general decline of the exhibits' contents and the new focus on less competent visitors were my real disappointments. I'd rather pay an entrance fee to see the previous collection.
Last summer I finally made it, together with my son, to the Bank of Canada Museum, reopened after a 4-year-long renovation. The museum turned out to be quiet, calm and almost empty. I came back a few weeks later - still no crowds. What a surprise.
Being a staunch numismatist, I had been waiting long for this reopening. I remember what the former Currency Museum used to be before its closure in 2013. Last time I was there, I was impressed and astonished by its huge collection of coins and banknotes, from the most ancient specimens (the Ancient Greece and Rome, East Asia etc.) up to comprehensive and huge collections of circulation and commemorative coins of all countries of the world. On the walls there were big glass showcases and "books" containing multiple showcase "sheets" with coins and banknotes sorted by countries and periods, which I liked to look at for hours.
News number one: the museum has moved. Not too far away, actually. Instead of the Bank of Canada building it is currently located right next door.
Visitors could pick a bracelet at the counter to touch displays or buttons on the wall. This detail looked suspicious, with regard to what I was supposed to expect. I remembered to see such a feature at exhibitions for small kids, sometimes for teens, but not for adults definitely. The previous museum did contain a lot of interesting things for kids, not electronic but rather materials (things to touch, to draw, crafts, stamps etc).
Then we went through a dark passage with mysteriously glowing blue lights, which led us to gallery #1. The same blue lights were part of the whole museum interior design.
On the wall in the first gallery I saw old Canadian stock securities; they used to be the most popular form (and quite risky) form of pension savings for Canadians before they got the current system of pension savings. Simple keeping money on bank accounts was more secure, but inflation usually depreciated that type of savings.
Gallery # 2 presented a general overview of Canadian economy, but frankly, it looked quite modest compared to what I could see in the previous museum (for example, it lacked items of trade between European settlers and Aborigines and prices for those items). I think those exhibits were relocated (please correct me if I am wrong) to the storage of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau (formerly the Civilization Museum).
There was a curious showcase about hyperinflation in various countries: Hungary (1945-1947), Germany (1922-1923), Zimbabwe (recent)... oh yes, and Belarus of course; we helped two Canadian visitors identify an exotic banknote with texts in an incomprehensible language - and it was indeed Belarus.
The second part of Gallery # 2 represented money of the world in XX-XXI centuries. About a dozen countries per continent, about 2-6 coins and (in the best case) a single banknote per country - and that was all. All that remains from the previously huge collection. My heart was broken.
Finally, the third gallery contained a very brief overview of the modern Canadian banknotes and coinage.
My numismatist's grief was a bit relieved by my trip to the monthly show of coin and stamp collectors, just a couple of hours before, at RA Centre. Believe or not, what I saw there was way richer and more interesting than the museum's current collection.
Briefly speaking, while the previous version of the museum (before renovation) seemed to focus on adult and knowledgeable visitors with picky taste, the current one rather targets curious schoolchildren and absolute beginners. Speaking about beginners, there used to be a gift shop in the old version, which offered books, souvenirs and even packages of small coins for beginners - now it's all gone. So be it. As long as there are numismatic shops, I'll survive.
Summary. The "pros" of the new museum: lots of interactive screens (which, apparently, were not that numerous in the previous museums) and very interesting interior design. The entrance is free, doors are opened 7 days a week, 10 to 17. However, the general decline of the exhibits' contents and the new focus on less competent visitors were my real disappointments. I'd rather pay an entrance fee to see the previous collection.
Written January 27, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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