You know your famous when they put you on the money.

When you think of Mexico, you might think of poor people. Or, maybe you think of super rich drug cartel owners. Both do exist in Mexico, but the reality is the majority of Mexicans are just a bunch of hard working people just trying to make a living. While Mexico may not be the richest country in the world, it is by no means the poorest either. The fact is that Mexico has a lot of natural resources and when you realize how functional the country is despite sometimes inept government structures, you start to realize how much the country actually has to offer.

The concept of money is a universal concern. The MIDE (Museo Interactivo De Economia, Museum Interactive of Economics) tries to not only explain where money comes from, but where it can take us. The museum lives up to it’s title by being very interactive. Getting caught up in all the different displays it became very apparent how money affects us. It also became very apparent that I did not want to be stuck on a deserted island with AJ because we all “died” when he refused to trade with us.

The museum was located very close to the Bellas Artes Metro station and didn’t cost too much. It was $90 ($5.06 USD) pesos per person or $200 ($11.25 USD) per family of four. For an extra $20 pesos ($1.15 USD) we were able to design our own money, which was a fun little souvenir.

Click to enlarge photos:

In this exhibit they showed you all the anti-fraud mechanisms used in money.

This exhibit had bags that represented amount of goods.

Mexican pesos are a lot more colorful than US dollars. These frames are made with shredded money.

For some strange reason the torture museum was next to the economics museum.

The MIDE is a very fun place for families to explore.

An old coin mint.

On the top floor you started the tour by learning about the enviroment

AJ and Denise enjoyed the fact that some of the displays were in English.

Mexico’s first pesos were printed by the Bank of London.