Thomas Hockenhull, curator, British Museum The 2008 banking
crisis plunged the UK into a recession from which it has been
struggling to recover ever since. However, this crisis is not
the first to have affected Britain and it is unlikely to be the
last. Here in the Department of Coins and Medals we decided to
look at the bigger picture in an exhibition looking back at
Britain’s financial crises since the 1700s. Drawing upon our
extensive collection, we found we had an object that related to
almost every crisis to affect Britain since the advent of
organised banking. This material ranged from share certificates
for companies that failed and notes from failed banks, to
reports and recriminations about crises. In some cases these
objects are fragile and sensitive to light, meaning that they
can never go on permanent display. For the rest of the
exhibition we wanted to show how ordinary people have, and will
continue, to respond to financial crisis. Numerous cartoons and
satirical prints have been produced over h