Money Talks: 7 Cool Things to See at Boston's New Finance Museum

July 1, 2026

By Scott Kirsner, MassLive

Photo by Scott Kirsner, MassLive

If you enjoy earning money, spending money, investing money or just ogling historic bills, a new museum in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood has your number.

The Museum of American Finance opens Friday, July 3. And dropping by won’t dent your bank account; admission is free.

The museum originally opened in 1989 in lower Manhattan, and occupied several locations around Wall Street until 2018, when a water main break forced it to close.

Deputy director Kristin Aguilera said that a lengthy search for a new home led the museum to Commonwealth Pier, a recently redeveloped harborfront site owned by the Massachusetts Port Authority and long occupied by Fidelity Investments. Three financial services firms headquartered in Boston — Fidelity, MassMutual and State Street — have been major supporters of the museum.

Here are seven cool things you'll find in the new museum:

• The first authorized lottery ticket sold in Colonial America, from 1744. It was created to raise money for Massachusetts' defense.

• A blank check that was carried by John F. Kennedy's Secret Service detail on the day he was assassinated. Kennedy typically kept a pre-signed check ready for personal expenses on his trips.

• Currency that incorporated Benjamin Franklin's ideas for fighting counterfeiting — like imprinting the image of a unique leaf on the face of a bill.

• A British tax stamp from 1765, showing that you'd paid Parliament's tax on your purchase of parchment, playing cards or a newspaper. This was one of the taxes that eventually led to the American Revolution.

• A portrait of Alexander Hamilton that comes to life, and can answer questions about the Founding Father's life, and the financial system he helped design. He can speak just about any language, thanks to artificial intelligence. The museum also displays several important documents Hamilton wrote as the U.S. government was taking shape after the Revolutionary War.

• Pine tree shillings, produced in Massachusetts in the 1650s. These were the first coins minted in Colonial America.

• A timeline of financial innovations that were born in Massachusetts, including the first mutual fund, the first venture capital firm and the first exchange-traded fund (but not the Ponzi scheme, which Charles Ponzi ran in Downtown Boston in the 1920s).

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