Official review: “Playing with Money: Currency and Games” (British Museum)
Location. Room 69a, on third floor.
BM’s Department of Coins and Medals has dedicated themselves to put on temporary exhibitions at an exceptional speed, a feat unmatched by other offices. Sooner or later, you’ll also realize how fast their themes have been evolving.
For now for the first time, enter the realms of make-believe monies.
Our story starts with The Landlord’s Game (1903) (clip), a box set that could sound obscure until you realize it’s the precursor to Monopoly. You’ll find yourself in pity mode the more its unfortunate fate is being explained, with it starting off as a critique on the tendencies of capitalism – but now with its rules changed and then popularized to the point of a Brobdingnagian “meh” as to its educational / original purposes.
The narrative does give credit along the lines of gameplay – that it has helped transform a leisurely activity from one that involves pure chance (think Snake and Ladder) to one that entails – going back to the age-old Chess – strategy and thinking.
Because – hey now – why focus on mintages and numismatics and finding out intrinsic values, if you now have these novelties of virtual money and relics trading in (as examples given) Second Life and World of Warcraft?
(In the same room: the department has now added window to its otherwise vault-like entrance. Making it more welcoming and less of a secure, deadly, enter-you-dare repository.)
Time is asset: save it for better with 25-min museum tours. Or find yourself in my novel, check out the photo of the day and finish it off with a secret prize.
Tags - in_depth_tourism; museum; London_writer; London_travel; indie_writer; independent_blogger
BM’s Department of Coins and Medals has dedicated themselves to put on temporary exhibitions at an exceptional speed, a feat unmatched by other offices. Sooner or later, you’ll also realize how fast their themes have been evolving.
For now for the first time, enter the realms of make-believe monies.
Glance: “Playing with Money: Currency and Games” (British Museum)
Our story starts with The Landlord’s Game (1903) (clip), a box set that could sound obscure until you realize it’s the precursor to Monopoly. You’ll find yourself in pity mode the more its unfortunate fate is being explained, with it starting off as a critique on the tendencies of capitalism – but now with its rules changed and then popularized to the point of a Brobdingnagian “meh” as to its educational / original purposes.
The narrative does give credit along the lines of gameplay – that it has helped transform a leisurely activity from one that involves pure chance (think Snake and Ladder) to one that entails – going back to the age-old Chess – strategy and thinking.
“Playing with Money: Currency and Games” (British Museum)
Because – hey now – why focus on mintages and numismatics and finding out intrinsic values, if you now have these novelties of virtual money and relics trading in (as examples given) Second Life and World of Warcraft?
(In the same room: the department has now added window to its otherwise vault-like entrance. Making it more welcoming and less of a secure, deadly, enter-you-dare repository.)
Time is asset: save it for better with 25-min museum tours. Or find yourself in my novel, check out the photo of the day and finish it off with a secret prize.
Tags - in_depth_tourism; museum; London_writer; London_travel; indie_writer; independent_blogger
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