Culture
Projects and initiatives
PBZ MUSEUM
Privredna banka Zagreb has founded the unique museum devoted to the history of money. A rich coin collection, piggy bank collection from all over the word, old stock collection and historical documents are available to everyone, with guidance provided. The most regular visitors are student groups. Apart from being educational, the museum thus makes savings more popular and motivates the young generations to save.
Working hours
Monday from 2 PM to 4 PM
Thursday from 2 PM to 5 PM
*Museum visits can be arranged outside working hours upon prior agreement.
Address
E-mail: muzej@pbz.hr
Head of PBZ Museum: prof. Melita Jesih Matić
ABOUT MUSEUM
About the museum
Following its honourable tradition, Privredna Banka Zagreb plays an important role in preserving Croatian monetary heritage. In line with the practice of other large European banks, PBZ has decided to host a permanent exhibition in Oktogon: the first and only Croatian museum of saving and banking.
In the representative space of the Oktogon palace (Ilica 5), more than nine hundred selected exhibits are displayed in three extensive collections:
- scripophily (the collection of stock and bond certificates),
- numismatics (the collection of coins and paper money),
- saving (the collection of piggy banks and savings books).
Within the scripophily collection, about 510 historical bond certificates are displayed; of which only 110 are permanently exhibited in Oktogon, while the remaining 400 are displayed in the relocated glass showcases in larger PBZ branch offices.
These objects of value belonging to our economic and monetary history are reborn after a half-century delay in development. In addition to their historical value, many of them also have artistic value, since they were created by renowned visual artists, both domestic and foreign.
The numismatic collection includes about 550 of the most attractive coins and paper money displayed in 1,800 samples.
The bank’s savings collection is represented by 240 of the most picturesque piggy banks with over 1,400 exhibition pieces, along with 50 of the most interesting savings books from a 10 times more numerous collection from all over the world.
The Museum’s main goal is to promote saving by setting out its benefits and long tradition among Croatian people to the broad public, in particular the younger generation.
Not many know that the old Croatian silver coins depicting martens (the present name for Croatian currency is the kuna = marten), the so-called Denarius Zagrabiensis or Denarius Banalis, were internationally recognised and valued currency in the 13th and 14th centuries and that silver coins from Dubrovnik enjoyed an even greater international reputation throughout Europe.
It is virtually unknown to the public that there were more than 40 mints used to produce coins in Croatia, with one of the most productive ones, the Dubrovnik mint, doing so for 500 years continuously.
With this museum collection, we want to affirm the truth about the autochthony of the Croatian financial system, whose history shows records of coins minted during the time of Austria-Hungary using Croatian national signs, along with the symbols of other constitutional states.
More of these interesting coins are presented with graphic enhancements that were specially lit and displayed using digital software; this multimedia presentation of Croatian numismatics is guaranteed to attract the attention of the Internet surfers.
We should also point out the specific value of artistic renderings of the birth of Croatian money in visual works of art produced by the painters Miroslav Šutej, Kuzmo Kovačić and Mill Boras.
ČINIM DOBRO SVAKI DAN
Humanitarian Project
The American Express card with a heart saw the light of day back in 2008. It was created to provide aid to extremely important projects for the further growth and development of the community. For each payment transaction made using this card, the PBZ Group donates 1 kuna to the “Doing good every day” project, which helps the Ministry of Health’s “Monitoring children at neurorisk” project and “A better life for children in the social service system” initiated by the Ministry for Demographics, Family, Youth and Social Policy. There are no mandatory initial fees during the first year of use of the American Express card with a heart, and PBZ Card donates HRK 15 from each basic membership and HRK 10 from additional membership from the second year of use. Other American Express card users can help the cause by donating their reward points. In addition to the above, donations can be made at www.cinimdobro.hr using any American Express, MasterCard, Maestro or Visa card irrespective of the issuing bank. The long-term and ongoing project for helping the community we are active in has also yielded excellent results during 2018. Between the project launch in 2008 and the end of last year, we have raised more than HRK 15 million. By the end of last year, 37 donations had been made in total, including 28 donations to hospitals throughout the country for purchasing medical equipment and nine donations to social welfare institutions for purchasing necessary equipment. During 2018, five new donations were made within the scope of this project to the following users: the Clinical Hospital Centre Osijek, “Slava Raškaj” Education Centre in Split, the Children's Hospital in Zagreb, the County Hospital in Čakovec, and the University Hospital Centre Zagreb. You can find detailed descriptions of all the donations on the project website at www.cinimdobro.hr.
Visit the web site "Činim dobro svaki dan."
