It took me three years to go to the Museu do Dinheiro because, while it's free and right downtown,…read moreI've been to a lot of similar museums that were super boring. Lots of coins and bills in glass cases.
I finally went because I had someone visiting and it was raining. I figured we'd go here and to the other free archaeology site downtown and still have time to get a coffee. Nope. The space is big: three levels of exhibits about money, plus the basement archeological finds. All of the exhibits are in English and Portuguese.
If you're a history nerd and actually interact with the exhibits, you can easily spend three plus hours there like we did. If you're not a nerd, you can touch a gold bar, get a (picture of a) coin with your face on it, and use the bathrooms for free before going to drink at the quiosque outside.
The interactive exhibits were kind of confusing, but trying to figure them out was part of the fun. My friend and I are both trying to learn Portuguese history, so it was particularly cool to see artifacts and piece things together. While there are coins and bills in glass cases, they worked really hard to explain why each item is interesting and present it in an engaging way.