SPAREBØSSEMUSEET
On May 3, 1995 Randers and Denmark got a new and cozy attraction.
Sparebøssemuseet (The Money Box Museum of Denmark) which is Denmark's largest and only museum for Money Boxes was inaugurated.
It was the director of Sparekassen Kronjylland, Jacob Leth, who opened the museum, which in 2020 has celebrated its 25th anniversary.
In fact, from the late 1980s until 1995, there had been a small exhibition of money boxes from the 1930s onwards, as well as pottery money boxes published by the danish bank ‘Bikuben’ shaped like figures of danish ministers and foreign statesmen and women.
They originally stood for many years in the executive office of the danish bank ‘Sparekassen for Randers By og Omegn (now Sparekassen Kronjylland), but when there was no longer room for them there, in the late 1980s they were moved down to the basement under the headquarter of Sparekassen Kronjylland.
In 1995 when a large collection of money boxes was received from Jacob Leth, it was decided to open an actual museum. The collection was now 1,300 money boxes.
When ‘Sparekassemuseet’ at the danish institution ‘Klarskovgaard’ was closed in 2004, ‘Sparebøssemuseet’ was handed over a large collection of 2,000 money boxes.
After taking over the money boxes from ‘Klarskovgaard’, the Money Box Museum's collection was approximately 3,500 money boxes.
The collection has since grown further and today there are probably close to 3,600 money boxes.
To secure the collection for posterity, a fund for the museum was established in 2007, which is called the "Fund for the Money Box Museum".