Museum of American Finance

Situated in the old headquarters of the Bank of New York, the permanent collection traces the history of Wall Street and America’s financial markets. Displays in the august banking hall include a crisp $10,000 bill, a bearer bond made out to President George Washington, ticker tape from the morning of the stock-market crash of 1929 and a curvaceous couch made of $30,000 worth of nickels. The museum also serves as a de facto visitors’ center for the New York Stock Exchange, with videos of the Exchange floor and a "teaching ticker" that explains what each abbreviation, numeral and color means. The recent addition of a timeline exhibit tracking the evolution of the credit crisis from 2006 to the present helps to clarify the current global predicament.