Happy 10th Anniversary to Our Economy Museum!
Want to Visit the Economy Museum?
The museum is inside the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis building in downtown St. Louis and is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding Bank holidays. Admission is free.
Learn more about visiting the museum or explore the exhibits online.
Narrator: This year, the Economy Museum turns 10 years old. Here are some interesting numbers from the museum’s first decade.
Since opening on Sept. 22, 2014, the museum has hosted over 95,000 visitors. We hope to reach 100,000 this year.
The museum houses more than 100 exhibits, some of which change periodically. So if you haven’t visited lately, you should.
There are 56 video screens incorporated into our exhibits to help make our museum as interactive as possible.
Our collection of historic money contains over 850 pieces of coins and currency dating back to the 1700s.
According to our map, we’ve had visitors from at least 30 countries and all 50 states.
Each year, we host dozens of classroom programs for schools and other organizations.
In 2023, we hosted nearly 60 of them. That’s more than one per week.
Here are some numbers about one of our most popular exhibits: There is one gold bar in the entire Bank (and you can hold it in your hand). It weighs 28 pounds, and it’s worth about $900,000, depending on current gold prices.
We also have a lot of tall exhibits.
Our giant Lincoln penny is 8 feet tall.
Our Banking Rules exhibit looks like a 7-foot-tall puzzle game.
And this exhibit converts your height into the equivalent value of shredded cash (up to 7 feet, anyway).
Finally, the success of our museum depends on the more than 130 St. Louis Fed employees that volunteer as greeters and tour guides. They’re the real MVPs here.
Come visit us to see why the economy is about more than just numbers. Plan your visit today at economymuseum.org.
In honor of the museum’s 10th anniversary, we decided to find out more about the Economy Museum through 10 questions with Museum Director Abby Anderson.
What is your role in the Economy Museum?
Abby Anderson, director of the St. Louis Fed’s Economy Museum, talks to a group of visitors about the Million Dollar Money Cube.
As the museum director, I’m in charge of our museum operations and our exhibit content. I also lead our employee museum volunteer program, help our Economic Education department partners develop classroom programs for our visitors, conduct group tours, handle visitor services and manage our gift shop—so, a lot of things! I’ve been doing this since early 2023.
How was the St. Louis Fed’s Economy Museum established?
This was a big initiative supported by former St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and conducted by Karen Branding, former senior vice president over Public Affairs (now External Engagement and Corporate Communications). The goals of the project were to increase the St. Louis Fed’s engagement with the general public and help them better understand the role of the Federal Reserve—and, more importantly, to advocate for economic education more broadly. This museum does it all.
Why is the museum an important part of the St. Louis Fed?
One of the museum’s big missions is education. We believe that informed citizens are going to make better economic and financial decisions for themselves and their families, which, in turn, are going to help the economy overall. Our museum helps visitors learn more about the economy and their role in it as well as about the Federal Reserve and how it functions.
How many visitors does the museum have per year?
Last year we saw about 12,500 visitors. We’re hoping to see even more this year!
“Hamilton” Actors Stopped by Our Economy Museum
The TV program “Show Me St. Louis” visited our museum, the Gateway Arch and Missouri Historical Society Library with actors Hosea Mundi (left) and Elvie Ellis (center), who immersed themselves in U.S. history for their roles in the national touring production of the play, which returned to the Fox Theatre for a run ending Sept. 8, 2024. The actors got a tour from museum educator Liz Senzee. The segment featuring the museum starts at about 2 minutes into the video.
What is your favorite part of the Economy Museum?
My absolute favorite part is probably the currency design wall, which highlights just how beautiful and intricate currency can be. It also celebrates the culture, the history and the industries of different countries. At the same time, the exhibit explains various features that protect the currency from being counterfeited.
What do you hear from visitors about their favorite exhibits in the museum?
The gold bar, the currency displays—especially our counterfeit money display—and the trading pit are some of the most popular exhibits among visitors.
Our currency displays in the vault gallery show all things currency, coin and gold. Visitors can learn about how money is made, how to spot counterfeit money, what happens to contaminated money, the history and art of cash, and more. Visitors can also try to lift a 28-pound genuine gold bar.
Another part of the museum covers topics like global trade, the benefits of trade and why people participate in various markets. The highlight of this area for many visitors is competing to make the most money in a simulated trading pit game.
Overall, visitors really enjoy the hands-on nature and interactivity of our exhibits.
Two school-age visitors view a bill in the Counterfeit exhibit, another student tries to lift a 28-pound gold bar, and a group of students competes in a simulated trading pit game.
The museum also has a classroom. What sorts of educational programs do you facilitate?
Liz Senzee (right), museum specialist, leads a classroom activity in the Economy Museum with Eva Johnston, then a senior economic education specialist at the St. Louis Fed.
During the school year, we offer a variety of classroom programs that we create alongside our Economic Education department partners. We’re launching two new elementary school programs, one on the picture book “Mr. Cookie Baker” and another on how to spot a counterfeit bill. I will say our most popular classroom program, which was created by my predecessors, is our Escape the Vault activity. It is like a tabletop escape room and is specifically targeted toward high school students. The activity provides a competitive way for students to learn about the St. Louis Fed, the Federal Reserve System’s structure, accounting and currency counterfeiting, all within about 45 minutes.
Do other Federal Reserve bank locations have museums or educational outreach programs?
It varies! There are 12 main Federal Reserve banks; to my knowledge, most of them have some kind of educational component that they do as part of their outreach. Many of them have museums or gallery spaces, some do a guided tour program, some do scheduled tours, and some, like the St. Louis Fed, have larger sites with walk-in visitors. Before I joined the St. Louis Fed, I was actually the museum coordinator at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Money Museum.
Why should people visit the Economy Museum at the St. Louis Fed?
Visitors watch a video about the economy in the St. Louis Fed lobby.
We are so unique and special! When you come to visit, you get to go into this beautiful, almost 100-year-old building (its birthday is next year!), and you get to learn a little bit of history about what St. Louis was like in 1925. While the Federal Reserve’s work has evolved since then, visitors can learn about some of the core responsibilities—like conducting monetary policy, supervising and regulating banks, providing financial services (like the distribution of cash and coin) and providing a variety of services to the U.S. Treasury—that remain central to what the Fed does in service to the American public.
In addition to learning some history when you visit, you can see a little bit of art, like I mentioned with our design wall in our vault gallery, and you also get to learn about economics. A lot of elementary, middle and high schools don’t teach economics, or it may be considered an elective course. Visiting our museum might be a special opportunity to educate yourself, your kids or your grandkids, and you can do it for free and have fun! And we’re also near the Gateway Arch, so that’s pretty cool, too.
What do you want to see for the future of the museum?
I hope that we continue to be a staple of downtown St. Louis and of our community through our partnerships with the St. Louis Fed’s Economic Education, Community Development and Institute for Economic Equity teams. I’ve already talked about the museum’s collaboration with the Economic Education department, but we’re also aiming to tell more of the economic stories of low- and moderate-income communities and households through museum content.
In addition, I hope that we can continue to be a fun place for visitors and a place for St. Louis Fed employees to bring in their own families and friends to learn more about the economy and the Federal Reserve. But overall, I hope that we continue to be a main contributor to the St. Louis Fed’s outreach across our district and across the country as a whole.
This post was updated Sept. 6, 2024, to include information about “Hamilton” cast members’ visit to the Economy Museum.
This blog explains everyday economics and the Fed, while also spotlighting St. Louis Fed people and programs. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the St. Louis Fed or Federal Reserve System.
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