An enlarged specimen of a 1,000 taka note hangs on a wall as people look at other displays at the currency museum that opened yesterday in Mirpur, Dhaka. Photo: Star

A currency museum, first of its kind in Bangladesh, was inaugurated yesterday to highlight the history of taka and its evolution.
Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury inaugurated the Taka Jadughar at Bangladesh Bank's training academy in Mirpur.
The museum will help people get acquainted with the lifestyle, education, culture and various aspects of archaeological developments of human civilisation through coins and currencies of different eras, the speaker said.
“We can preserve our culture and heritage through this museum as the currencies help us remember the history of the language movement and liberation war,” she said.
The full-fledged currency museum will help young people to know the country's history of currency, said Atiur Rahman, governor of Bangladesh Bank.
“It has been established with modern technology to attract visitors.” Every country in the world has its own currency museum, Rahman said.
The museum will highlight the identity of Bangladesh like its national flag does, he said.
"For me, getting to know about the history of money is a way to look at the history of the world.”
The new museum is exciting and timely because it explains the evolution of currency from the ancient era to modern times and the ways that people used it and how the currency has changed over the past few millenniums, Rahman said.
It showcases coins and banknotes, which are witnesses to history, to uphold the history and heritage before the present and future generations, he said.
The country's eminent artists, architects and historians have worked together for the museum along with the central bank, the governor said.
"We have collected local and foreign coins and banknotes in different ways to enrich this museum,” he said.
The museum has thousands of coins and notes from the Pala, Sena, Gupta, Sultani, Mughal and British periods.