SAMA Money Museum

SAMA Money Museum is a museum specializing in currencies, highlighting their historical and civilizational value. It is located in the main building of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) in the capital, Riyadh. It contains rare Islamic currencies, currencies that prevailed before Islam, and modern currencies, in addition to containing some of the raw materials used in the modern banknote printing and coin minting industry alike. The museum also exhibits illustrative pictures of the security features of Saudi banknotes.

The museum includes five halls. The first hall contains two containers displaying two silver dirhams, one of which was minted in al-Yamamah in 782, while the other was minted in Makkah al-Mukarramah in 896, in addition to an illustrative picture of each of them. The hall also contains a wall map of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the locations of branches of SAMA in various regions of the Kingdom.

The second hall includes some raw materials from Mahd al-Dhahab Mine, in addition to materials explaining the stages of banknote printing and coin minting processes. There are two containers in the hall displaying banknotes of denominations: SAR500, SAR200, and SAR100, along with the stages for printing them.

The third hall is considered the largest and main hall of the museum, in which various monetary issues are displayed in three forms. The first consists of fifteen wall containers, each of which represents a particular century, starting from the pre-Islamic century until the twenty-first century, and in each of them, there are forty-two coins.

The second figure displays two hanging containers, the first, includes banknotes and coins in circulation for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC), while the second container is divided into two parts. The first includes the coins that were used in the regions of the Kingdom before and during its unification, while the second part contains rare Islamic currencies, minted in a number of regions of the Kingdom throughout the Islamic period. The third and final form is depicted as a large display container in the middle of the hall, topped with an electrically rotating globe figure. It is used to display the modern currencies in circulation in most countries of the world.

The fourth hall was dedicated to displaying models of Saudi monetary issues and the stages of their development, starting with pilgrims’ receipts during the reign of the Founding King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, and ending with the fifth banknote issue, which was issued during the reign of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in addition to displaying the Saudi gold and silver coins. In the middle of the hall, there is a container in which Saudi coins are displayed, and on which rests a smaller container that displays silver and gold medals issued by SAMA on various occasions.

The fifth hall screens films from SAMA Money Museum and Saudi banknotes in the Kingdom, in addition to security features and guidelines that people should follow to identify the correct banknotes.

SAMA allows a visit to SAMA Money Museum by prior appointment. This is done by submitting an electronic request specifying the name, phone number, e-mail address, and the entity, whether governmental, educational, family, or individual, and specifying the purpose of the visit in the request.