Our Coins!

Starting in December 2026, the Coin Cabinet invites you to rediscover, comment on, and discuss “Our Coins.” Anyone who’d like to can draw and share their own coin designs.

“Our Coins”

Whether “Teuro,” “Euronen,” “Ocken,” “Para,” or “Penunsen”—through coins, people make contemporary history their own. These small metal monuments are meant to spark desire, to be explored, and to circulate in everyday life. After all, coinage thrives on moving, circulating, and flowing.

The images and texts on the euro coins speak to us, speak about us, but also speak for us. Commemorative coins are noticed all over the world, and this has become even more true since the rise of social media. The money circulates far beyond Germany’s borders. They are “Our Coins” and, at the same time, global Europeans.

The Numismatic Cabinet as an Archive of “Our Coins”

Museums also collect coins to preserve them for posterity. The Coin Cabinet at Berlin’s Bode Museum on Museum Island houses treasures spanning 28 centuries and from all over the world. Over half a million objects here tell stories of history and serve as resources for global research. Our coins today continue this tradition. The Coin Cabinet is proud to support this area of collecting, preserving and passing on these historical artifacts for future generations. The exhibition, catalog, and accompanying program are all part of this commitment to “Our Coins.” Commemorative coins are compact, enduring works of art that immortalize our culture and values. They are testaments to our democracy. Through them, we create an echo that will tell the story of us for millennia to come. That is why it matters deeply what our money looks like—we all bear responsibility for this cultural heritage.

The Exhibition

People, events, places, culture, nature: Major themes are condensed to the extreme on coins—history that fits in your pocket. The Numismatic Cabinet presents a selection of its Federal Republic of Germany coins from the past 20 years, featuring over 200 themes, accompanied by a printed catalog and the digital online collection.

But we don’t just want to look back; we want to take a peek behind the scenes: Who actually makes “our coins”? Who chooses the themes, who designs the motifs, and who ultimately decides on the minting? What makes a coin good in the first place? What hidden stories lie behind the images, and what do collectors think about them? What might our coin art look like in an alternative scenario?

The Berlin Medallists’ Circle has launched the accompanying “Kunstgeld 2127” competition for the exhibition. This project ventures into a thought experiment and travels 100 years into the future: How will coin and medal art in the year 2127 look back on our current era?