Unsere Münzen! Gedenkprägungen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2006–2026)

Preview: written before the show opened

Teuro, Euronen, Ocken, Penunsen: the Münzkabinett's own text for this show opens with the nicknames Germans give their coins. Then it puts twenty years of the Federal Republic's commemorative coins on display, a selection covering more than 200 themes, from people and events to places, culture and nature. The museum calls it history for your trouser pocket.

The show also goes behind the coins: who picks the themes, who designs the motifs, who decides what gets struck, and what makes a coin good at all. Alongside the official issues will be a selection from "Kunstgeld 2127", a competition run by the Berliner Medailleurkreis in which medal artists imagine how the year 2127 will look back on 2006 to 2026. You can draw your own coin design and share it.

Come for the question of who decides what our money looks like. The museum's page is in German only so far. There is a printed catalogue, and the Bode-Museum stays open until 8pm on Thursdays.