Monetary Authority of Singapore

The MAS gallery aims to provide visitors with an overview of what exactly the MAS does for Singapore. This includes issuing currency, conducting monetary policy, managing Singapore’s official foreign reserves, regulating and supervising the financial sector, and promoting Singapore as an international financial centre. The gallery also highlights the MAS’ efforts in raising financial literacy and offers a glimpse of how technology and innovation could transform the future of financial services. Through a compilation of videos, photographs, artefacts and interactive displays, all exhibited in seven different gallery zones, visitors will
learn about MAS as an organisation, along with its mission, values, leaders and staff.

Once you enter the gallery’s space through a large, almost nondescript, sliding glass door, a subtly-lit, continuous story-wall greets you with carefully framed graphics and finely worded texts almost tactile to the touch and set in a minimalist relief. A country’s currency reflects its history, culture and aspirations, and on display are early currencies used in Singapore. Some artefacts include cowrie shells, Dutch guilders, Straits Settlements coins and Indian currency notes dating back to 1812. Though the goal of the MAS gallery is to educate, the overall design and interior architecture is as equally important as its content by enhancing a visitor’s physical and learning experience. A closer look at the curated currency notes and coins highlight the amount of effort and dedication that went into each featured exhibit.

Learn how the MAS upholds confidence in the financial industry by fostering the safety and soundness of each institution through supervision and regulation. The gallery also focuses on you, providing financial knowledge that can help you manage your own finances with greater confidence.

The 480 square meter gallery is open to the public and is free to enter. It is located at the MAS Building in downtown Shenton Way. The MAS gallery unveils the insights into the world of currency, a young nation’s historical financial milestones and achievements, and a look to the future of Singapore’s monetary services.

This project offered an opportunity to manage multiple technical challenges, coordinating with different system specialists working together to achieve the desired results. Some of the gallery’s artefacts require their casements to implement the highest security possible while simultaneously handling its environment and stringent lighting requirements.

The pre-planning process for the bespoke showcases took almost an entire year as an historic set of rare paper currencies were secured on loan to be displayed as part of the MAS gallery launch programme. Specifications for the display cases were upgraded several times, more so as the gallery directors began to realise what Trika could do with their display cases.

One of the challenges Trika faced is that the building has no control over its ambient environment. Each time the main entrance door to the gallery opens, a waft of humid, warm air rushes in. In order to address this and achieve an important Air Exchange Rate (AER of 0.1 per day), the showcase team employed a special sealing method to air-lock the cases. Maintaining an AER rate of 0.1 is critical to the continued preservation of a museum’s priceless artefacts. Trika not only provides this level of protection as a standard feature in its wide range of case systems but is also able to conduct its own in-house and on-sight testing, validated against TUV-SUD test results. This is to ensure its showcases meet the stringent requirements set forth by the gallery’s directors and curators.

Delivering high-performance display cases to such an important gallery in Singapore is an honor in so many ways to the team at Trika. Drawing on the experience of numismatic displays we had designed and manufactured in the past, the technical team crafted a seamless case module to integrate into the gallery’s formworks without any joint lines. Most of the showcases were cantilevered off the wall by concealed, reinforced struts to achieve a weightless bank of display exhibits.

The MAS collection of rare paper currencies and coins are displayed in a single glass case almost three meters in length, accessible only through specially designed high-security doors. The concealed access to the main display chambers were extremely detailed, requiring different sets of security keys, double-locking steel bolts and multiple sensor alarm overrides. These comprehensive security measures had to be pre-planned into the showcase system and hard-wired into the gallery’s main security station. Invigilation of the entire gallery was deemed unnecessary in a nod to the high-level of security Trika’s showcases provide and the overall building security measures in place.

Though a significant part of this project was focused on showcase security and its integration into the building’s overall security grid, a large portion of the team’s attention was deployed to engineer sensitive conservation lighting for the flat and shallow mounted currency displays that are only millimeters from the glass fronts.

The team tested several lighting designs to establish and produce the specific type of fibre optic tails required. Each light test helped calibrate and determine the light pitching and output of each cluster of light. The light intensity, color rendering, and how uniform the light appears to the human eye were all taken into consideration. Concealed behind a light cover, this temperature-free, museum-quality lighting delivers a UV and IR-free sheet of uninterrupted light, ensuring that the fragile paper currency is well protected.

These cases were designed, produced and delivered to the MAS gallery inclusive of all the lighting equipment and mounting materials necessary for the security, conservation and presentation of these highly protected exhibits.