Success at the ICOMON 2023 Conference at Bank Negara Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur!
Figure 1. All of the participants of ICOMON 2023 pose at a grand staircase in Bank Negara Malaysia, the hosts and venue of the conference.
Between November 15 and 18, 2023, the International Committee of Money and Banking Museums (ICOMON) held its 29th Annual Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hosted by the Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery, the event attracted ICOMON members from 20 different countries from nearly every corner of the world, with the majority of participants acting as representatives of the central bank numismatic collections of their respective countries (Fig. 1).
Figure 2. After introducing Malaysian numismatics, Cho Chun Loong, an Executive Committee Member for the Malaysia Numismatic Society, leads the ICOMON 2023 participants through a roundtable on museum management.
The opening day of the conference consisted of a visit to the Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery and a tour of the Financial Services Library. The Bank Negara galleries include a Children’s Gallery, Islamic Finance Gallery, Numismatics Gallery, Bank Negara Malaysia Gallery, Art Gallery, and Economics Gallery. Also, on this day, Cho Chun Loong, an Executive Committee Member for the Malaysia Numismatic Society, held a roundtable that introduced everyone to Malaysian numismatics and museum management (Fig. 2).
Figure 3. After giving opening remarks, Marzunisham Omar, Dr. Kaja Širok, and Dr. Asma Ibrahim ring a ceremonial gong to officially open the conference.
All of the conference papers were delivered on Days Two and Three, which was commenced by opening speeches by Marzunisham Omar, the Deputy Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia; Dr. Kaja Širok, the Director of the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia and Member of the Executive Board for the International Council of Museums (ICOM); and Dr. Asma Ibrahim, founding Director of the Museum, Archives, and Art Gallery Department for the State Bank of Pakistan and Chair of ICOMON (Fig. 3).
Figure 4. Alnizah Shamsudeen, the Deputy Director for the Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery discusses a number of “big questions we need to think about,” providing food for thought for each of the participants.
The theme for the conference was “Reinforcing Museum’s Sustainable Competitiveness in the Peak of Digitization & Social/Global Challenges” (Fig. 4). The presentations, themselves, covered a wide array of topics. This gave participants the opportunity to explore new techniques in the fields of digital technology, display and exhibitions, as well as publications in money and banking museums. Topics included:
“Use of Generative AI in the Development of Museum Practices: Reviving the Past for a Sustainable Now and Future,” Nayanika Singh (E Factor Experiences India)
“Opening the Vaults,” Paul Beliën (Dutch Central Bank)
“Triggering Curiosity at the Digital Treasury of the Dutch Central Bank,” Pim Möring (Dutch Central Bank)
“Digitizing Exhibition in Money Museums: Cambodia’s Experience,” Blaise Kilian (Museum of Economy and Money, Cambodia)
“Innovative Displays for Intangible Concepts: A Sustainable Approach,” Anareli Acosta Villegas (Museo Banco de Mexico)
“Money Museums: What Relevance and How Sustainable?” Winani Thebele (National Museum of Botswana)
“Sustainability in Money Museums,” Ketevan Chitashvili (Bank of Georgia)
“Museum Reinvention in the Digital Age: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies for Sustainable Reinvention,” Alnizah Shamsudeen (Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery)
“Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Serving Coins and Medals in the Digital Age,” Majed Alotaibi (Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia)
“Keeping Digital Track: Applying QR Codes or RFID Tags to a Large Museum Collection,” Jesse Kraft (American Numismatic Society, USA)
“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: One Year Retrospective from Yale,” Benjamin Hellings and Emily Pearce Seigerman, Yale University Art Gallery, USA)
“One Too Many: Sustainable Collecting and Management,” Benjamin Hellings (Yale University Art Gallery, USA)
“The Pedagogical Side of the Coin,” Emily Pearce Seigerman (Yale University Art Gallery, USA)
“The Evolution of the Malaysian Ringgit,” Wan Muhammad Danial Wan Omar (Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery)
“Digitalization and Social Responsibility Challenges in Regional and International Context: The Case of the Bank Al-Maghrib Museum,” Samia Doudi (The Bank Al-Baghrib, Morocco)
Figure 5. A sculptor for MyMint lets the ICOMON 2023 participants in on some of his artistic secrets. Once he is finished with this design, it will be digitally scanned, reduced, and turned into a die to strike coins.
Day Two was capped off with a visit to the National Museum of Malaysia and the Islamic Art Museum of Malaysia, followed by a welcoming dinner at Rumah Tansi Kuala Lumpur. Day Three was highlighted with a guided tour of MyMint—the coining facilities for Bank Negara Malaysia (Fig. 5). This mint is brand new, having just opened in October, and constitutes one of the most modern minting facilities in the world. Each of their dozen presses can strike up to 14 coins per second!
Day Four of the conference was reserved for a cultural excursion to Melaka, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This included tours of the Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum, the Red Square and A’famosa, and the Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum. In this history-laden city, visitors can see centuries worth of culture—notably Portuguese, Dutch, English, and Malay culture and architecture, along with those from many of the surrounding nations, who have used Melaka as a crossroads for Southeast Asian trade for many centuries. Additionally, the participants were treated to a cycle rickshaw ride and an evening river cruise through Melaka (Fig. 6).
Figure 6. This author and Hary Nugroho Susanto, Director of the Bank Indonesia Museum, ride a Spider-Man-themed cycle rickshaw through Melaka.
Special thanks must be given to Bank Negara Malaysia for hosting the event, and especially to Marzunisham Omar, the Deputy Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia; Alnizah Shamsudeen, Deputy Director at Bank Negara Museum and Art Gallery; Mohammad Fakhrullah Jamlus, Senior Executive of Curatorial at Bank Negara Museum and Art Gallery; Izzul Hidayat Jalaluddin, Assistant Curator at Bank Negara Museum and Art Gallery; as well as the rest of the Bank Negara team that made this event an absolute success. Additional thanks to my ICOMON colleagues: Dr. Asma Ibrahim, Chair; Dr. Damon Monzavi, Vice Chair; Dr. Benjamin Hellings, Secretary; and Blaise Kilian, Member. Further thanks to each of the speakers and to all of the participants of ICOMON 2023.
The next ICOMON conference will be co-organized between ICOMON and the International Numismatic Congress (INC), September 25–28, 2024, to be hosted by the Economy Museum—Royal Coin Cabinet Stockholm, Sweden. The Call for Papers can be found in here.
