A feeling of regal elegance, but without the gold leafed cornices, pervades the new Coin and Note Exhibit at the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

During my tour, the new Exhibit was not completely finished, although it is currently open to the public after last Thursday’s grand opening of BMA House.

Marcia Woolridge-Allwood, director of Corporate Financial Services, said that they were very, very proud of the Note and Coin Exhibit.

“It outlines the story of how the notes are made,” she said.

“It also highlights our move to the decimal system in 1970, going from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars. We also have the notes that were initially issued by Government.”

Ms Woolridge-Allwood explained that the BMA took over in 1970.

“It was then that you would have started seeing Bermuda Monetary Authority notes, so you will no longer see Bermuda Government notes.

“You can see some of the old Sterling currency here and this a Two pence, (pronounced tuppence) and a shilling.”

Referring to some of the replicas that are on show within the new Exhibit, she said: “We also have replicas of the Hogge Money, which was the original money in Bermuda.

“I say replicas, but we do have the originals, and clearly this stuff is very, very precious, so the originals are kept locked away.

“There is also the Ship’s Penny, which is a piece of coinage that was used in the islands.”

She said that the BMA were hoping that this display would give the general public and visitors to the Exhibit a sense of the history of the original coinage and general currency in Bermuda.

“We feature the Bermuda Dollar, one pound notes, five shilling notes, ten shilling notes and one shilling notes,” Ms Woolridge-Allwood pointed out.

“We also have this set of scales, which we acquired years ago, and these were used for measuring metal content to make sure that you could barter for something by using the correct amount.”

Since the BMA took over, the money has been through several evolutions, one being the change of the paper dollar.

“We then moved to the new one dollar coin, which was very much like the UK one pound coin,” she said, “And some found their way into the UK.

“But we use the Royal Mint and of course they do too.”

In the case of the notes, the Bank of England issues their notes, or at least they did.

“Thomas De La Rue Plc. issue ours and they are located in Basingstoke (UK), but they have factories around the world and it is probably the largest private security printer in the world.

“We had the one dollar note, which we phased out, and this is an example of the printing plate used to produce Bermuda notes, and this particular exhibit was a present that was given to us by Thomas De La Rue to commemorate our 25th Anniversary.

“These are the plates, but they have crosses through, so no one can take them and get any ideas.”

The BMA also have a very successful Numismatic programme.

“We were successful in 1996 and won the Coin of the Year of the World Award and that was for our Triangle Coin, which was issued in 1996,” she said.

“It is in silver and in gold and it is also in our door handle leading into the Exhibit.

“It was the fist three-lobe-sided (not an exact triangle) coin ever issued in the world.

“These coins are, as I said, representative of Bermuda, but they also make excellent jewellery or if there are people here on holiday who can’t figure out what they want to take back to family and friends — they do take these back.

“In 2005 we issued a five-sided coin to commemorate Bermuda’s Quincentennial and that is also a very popular and unique coin.

“Again we decided to produce it in bi-metals and it is silver with a gold inlay, and it has also been entered for the 2005 Coin of the Year of the World Award — we don’t know, but we hope to win.”

Some of the other coins on offer or to view are the 12-point series of coins, which represent shipwrecks that you see around Bermuda.

“Six were issued with a 2006 date and six will be issued with a 2007 date,” she said.

“At the moment we have issued them in bi-metal form and the cost to the customer is $85.”

In the past, said Ms Woolridge-Allwood, the coins have been a true representation of what we have become accustomed to on and around the Island.

“These are the coins that we have issued ... and you can see here that we looked at flora and fauna, the tree frog, the heron and the blue bird,” she explained.

“This is the two longtails, which was a very popular coin, and that is actually a shot of two longtails mating.

“We also have sea shells, sea horses, and a Bermuda cedar tree - all things that are very unique to Bermuda.”

Getting a little away from Bermuda’s natural history, she noted that they also had coins that commemorated the anniversary of Bermuda’s Parliament.

“We can’t do everything,” she said, “But we do ones of significant, historical significance, and that are old enough to do.

“So we have the turtles, a clearly endangered species, and of course the (Her Majesty the) Queen’s wedding.”

On the plans for the Numismatic Team being involved in an educational outreach programme, she said: “This will help to educate children on the notes and coins of the country.

“It is also a way that they can help their parents to stop saving up all of those coins in bottles, because it is very expensive, so bring them back in and let them circulate.

“We try little by little to get a penny drive going. It is an opportunity for people to have pride in the currency and consider it.

“In this new building it will allow them to come into this facility. We can also take the opportunity to take them downstairs for a slide show and so forth to encourage their interests, not only in the history from our perspective, but also in becoming a collector one day.”