HOWARD BERLIN VISITS THE MUSEUM OF THE NATIONAL BANK OF BELGIUM

I’m currently in Belgium drinking some of the several hundred kinds of beer, sampling some of the liqueur-filled chocolate truffles, and eating a few Belgian fries. I also managed to pay a visit to the Museum of the National Bank of Belgium, which just a few blocks from my hotel. Its collection is heavy on bank notes (25,000) and it has about 6,000 coins, 2,000 tokens, and 2,000 medals.

Much of the 15 display rooms focus on its role as the central bank but the largest room (#4) is devoted to the historical display of money from ancient times to the present, including primitive money, and Belgian coins and bank notes from 1830. I have attached two photos of the museum – one outside and one inside of a partial view of room #4. Everything is in French and Dutch with very, very brief English.

I also wanted to thank all those who responded to my query in the E-sylum several months ago about my "numismatourist" travel book idea with their encouragement and suggestions. Because I had been away and had other writing deadlines, I havn't had a chance to properly respond to each of them but will do so in the next few weeks. Upcoming scheduled trips to visit museums between November and next March include London/Birmingham, Tokyo (with a sumo match - me watching, not participating and me learning how to make sushi), Warsaw, and Berlin.

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web