A partnership between DebtAware and Harris Museum in Preston has brought an ancient collection of coins to life in the modern classroom
Debt Advice Foundation recently won financial support from the Harris Museum in Preston for money management education programme DebtAware.
The funding has allowed the creation of a brand new module and enables primary school children to learn from the museums coin collection whilst studying a fictional diary of youngsters facing true-to-life debt problems, both in 1815 and in 2015. Highlights of the ‘Money Matters’ coin collection include Roman coins and Viking Silver.
The coins and funding have been made available through the Esmee Fairburn Collections Fund, which aims to broaden access and use of museum collections.
History Curator at the Harris Museum, James Arnold, said of the scheme:
“The Money Matters project has transformed the way that the Harris Museum & Art Gallery uses its 12,500 item numismatics collection which includes Roman and British coin hoards, individual coins from around the world, medals, tokens and paper money. It has sought to challenge a presumption that coins are small and boring. It has been praised as an example of good practice in museums, winning the national ‘Collections Practice’ award in 2015.
“Working with Debt Advice Foundation has been a pleasure and has highlighted the potential of the Harris’ numismatic collection as an educational tool visite site. The money diary, written and researched by university students, tells the story of the lives of two Preston families, one in 1815 and the other in 2015. It brings into focus that our experience of using money today – the emotions surrounding it and the hardships that we can face – are common across the centuries. Whilst the problems we face may be the same, the solutions to them are very different.
“I hope that the launch of the money diary and accompanying lesson will make schools increasingly aware of the Harris’ fantastic numismatics collection and the ways that it can be used as a powerful teaching and learning resource.”
The Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, is one of the leading museums in the North West and features contemporary art, fine art, decorative art and historic collections of national significance. The Harris is a major tourist attraction, welcoming over 210,000 visitors per year.
DebtAware Education Manager Brian Souter said;
“The coins that will be used with the Money Diary and lesson are British pre-decimal pennies which can be handled to let the children get a sense of the size and feel of 19th century coinage.
“The weekly wage of the family in 1815 can be visualised as a container full of coins which has to last until the next payday, as a demonstration of the challenges of managing a budget in 1815 and the similarities and differences to managing a budget in 2015.”