Where Money meets History

 

On November 24th of 1955, on his 36th birthday, Mario Odor, Aruba ’s famous coin collector, was digging in his flower garden when he found two old coins. One of them was a one penny of 1790 and one half-penny of 1788, both of them where “Tradesmen” copper Irish tokens. This was the sign to him that collecting was his duty and he took this very seriously by educate members of his family in the tradition of coin collecting. Today his wife, son, daughters and granddaughter are still managing his legacy at the Numismatic Museum of Aruba. You might be welcomed by his later generations, who will gladly guide you through this spectacle of money history.

 

‘Collection Timeline’: coins circulated in this region in a time when colonists, traders, merchants and even pirates traveled these Caribbean seas. The two coins he found sparkled Mario’s idea of starting to collect coins and paper money. This is why he collected non-stop for over 60 years of his life. His son , Ruben Odor, and granddaughter, Desiree Croes, both Numismatists, took his idea to another level and made researches to present Aruba ’s timeline through Numismatics.

 

The Aruba Numismatic Museum was established in 1975 and lodges the private collection of Mr. Odor and is the first museum established on Aruba .

 

The museum contains over 45.000 different pieces covering over 400 countries. This fantastic collection contains approximately over 110 different collections on their own, for example: occupation money 1st and 2nd worldwar, primitive, strange, ancient, proof, counter stamp, over struck, mini, chop-coins, errors, leprosarium, gold, ration, F.A.O. dollars & crowns, commemoratives, center holed, scalloped, square, wooden-coins, tokens, medals, food-coupons and much more.