Visit to Bank Negara

This visit gave me a few impressions. Some good and some not so good. Firstly, I find it nice that it uses both traditional methods and new methods for displaying information and artifacts. But the problem is there that some of the information displayed didn't feel like it was thought through well. Some of the information
that had to do with sound was unclear, not to mention some of the facilities were broken. Just a little though.

I think that both traditional methods and the newer form which includes installations and technology are both good methods for sharing information. But to my preference, I would the modern methods as they are more interesting. Interesting in a way that it can grab your attention and you can interact with it. Installations that don't use any technological devices to display information can also be interesting as long as there is the interaction and creativity in the idea to display it. There also lie problems with the modern methods such as having to be aware of the surroundings for an installation(dark room or a brighter room/ sound interferences),
it requires elecricity, and it requires more maintainence.

The installations in the museum were quite interesting. The traditional methods were good too as they displayed the object and it's information in a simple form. The only downside is that it may not look as interesting in the eyes of some people whilst being compared to the modern methods. And also, some of the installations were faulty, as in lagging or not working. And besides that, sometimes they installed various sound-based installations and put them together, which means that you won't be able to hear much because all the sound interferes with each other.

I personally liked the kids section because it was fun and interesting. The information given might not have been really useful for me. But all of the information in the section had a form of installation to it, they could all be interacted with, and for the best part, there was a tunnel made out of money. I also liked the information displayed with spinning tiles which had bank notes pasted on both front and back of a the tiles while displaying the country of the notes on it's side. Also, there was a "fake vault" which required you to answer a question to be able to look inside of it. That was a pretty neat idea. The vault had one window pane which
would only be transparent if it had light shone upon it. They set up a machine in front of the window so you could enter the answer, if your answer was correct, the light would be activated for a matter of seconds to let you look inside the vault which had an illustion of gold and money being repeated over and over with 2 mirrors.

As an overall experience as a visitor I thought it was quite educational as I've been exposed to newer ideas and information. The environment inside gave off a comfortable and peaceful feel, so as it made the experience of reading and looking at the displays feel much better.

The next generation would share information to their friends, but in my opinion mostly information that strikes them the most interesting. But that could be different for each individual as everyone has a different concept of interesting/cool. For instance, I shared the part about the money tunnel, because well, that was alot of money and it looked like it was just laying there. But no you couldn't steal it as it was protected by a layer of plastic/glass?(Forgot to examine it.)

If I were to ask the questions about Bank Negara, money and historical topics wise,

1) Why would the RM20 surface again after having disappeared for quite a number of years?

2) The coins have changed not only it's shape but also the material used. Is the only reason for changing it is because the older material used was getting more expensive?

3) Since the change of the design of coins, shape and materials, does that mean the method of producing money and the machines would have to be modified?