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NEW YORK: The Federal Reserve hopes the power of money will lure visitors to a new lower Manhattan exhibit even though attendance at other downtown museums has dropped by half since the attack on the World Trade Center.
Just a few steps from the now-destroyed Twin Towers, the display includes ancient Greek drachmas, Europe's oldest currency that has just been displaced by euros; bamboo-framed salt bars; and ornate gold coins - all money, depending on where and when you lived.
The American Numismatic Society exhibit, officially called "Drachmas, Doubloons and Dollars: The History of Money," opened on Wednesday. Organizers hope it will contribute to the gradual revival of Lower Manhattan as a vibrant museum centre.
Financial world luminaries Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, and William McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, spoke at the opening ceremony, with Greenspan lauding money as one of the great inventions of mankind and a marker of civilization.
"Its form in any particular period of history reflects the degree of confidence or the degree...