The Bank of Canada Museum owes its existence to the National Currency Collection. Begun modestly by the Bank of Canada in the late 1950’s, the collection was mandated in 1962 to create the most comprehensive collection possible of Canadian coins, tokens and paper money. This they did, obtaining large private collections as well as holdings from Library and Archives Canada. Over the years, the collection has also acquired many thousands of currency and trade items from all over the world and from two millennia of human history. Included in the collection mandate are artifacts for money production, storing, measuring and accounting. The collection was officially designated as ‘The National Currency Collection’ in 1977. Now at over 110,000 artifacts, the collection is still growing with special attention paid to further augmenting what is the world’s most complete collection of Canadian currency and Canadian currency production items.