The museum was founded in 1834. The small collection of ancient coins gathered at the Archaeological Museum of Aegina during the reign of Ioannis Kapodistrias became the core of its collection.

It was temporarily housed in several buildings before officially opening its permanent collection in 1998 at the newly renovated Iliou Melathron, the mansion built by Heinrich Schliemann as his residence. This stunning 19th-century neoclassical building is located on Panepistimiou Street.

Today, the museum serves as a double representation of Greek culture: a museum housed within an extraordinary architectural and historical building.

The museum’s collection includes hundreds of thousands of coins from antiquity to modern times. Primarily Greek, it also features coins from foreign countries that played a significant role in the economy of the Greek world.

In addition to the unique collection of ancient Greek coins from all regions of the ancient Greek world, the permanent exhibition on the history of coinage from Roman times to the present day, with a focus on the drachma, is of particular importance.