From beaver pelt counters to bitcoins, North Americans have invented many kinds of "money."

Northern trading posts would use special sticks to measure how many pelts were being bought - and how much the trapper could receive. By comparison, it's more difficult toexplain how some of the latest "e-money" programs actually work.

But that's one of the objectives at "Decoding E-money," the latest feature at the Galt Museum.

It's an interactive exhibit that's travelling the country, explains Galt curator Aimee Benoit. But for the Bank of Canada Museum creation, it's the first stop in WesternCanada.

It opened Sunday "with the hope to broaden the understanding of digital currencies," she says. Visitors will be invited to experience the displays "through a fun and compellinghands-on context."

Looking back, however, the exhibit also includes colonial and Canadian coins, bank notes and paper currency covering several centuries.

Coins or bills from various nations - Spain, France, England and more - were in circulation before Confederation in 1867, Benoit notes. And paper money was issued by severalinstitutions before the Bank of Canada was created during the depths of depression, in 1935.

For many Canadians, the first hint of the role digital currency would play was - zip, zip - the first Chargex card. Those early cards are also part of the exhibition, whichwill remain on view until Jan. 8.

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It's in your gift cards and maybe even your transit pass. It's starting to appear on your phone. How far is it going to go?

Decoding E-Money is a travelling exhibition from the Bank of Canada Museum that explores the past, present and future of electronic money and electronic payment systems. Whileraising awareness of e-money, this exhibition also helps visitors understand the possible effects of the widespread use of one form of e-money: digital currency.

Decoding E-money explores the voyage of your dollars from purchase to deposit through various traditional and e-payment systems. Learn about a whole new kind of money ascutting-edge graphics and fun, interactive displays introduce you to the high-tech intricacies of Bitcoin and other web-based currencies. Explore more than 60 artifacts coveringthe way Canadians have spent their money over the course of 200 years. From trading tokens to the most recent precursors of today's e-money, these artifacts at one time challengedour notions of acceptance much the way that Bitcoin challenges us today.

The exhibit includes games that help players experiment with and understand more deeply the philosophies and principles behind various e-money transaction tools from credit anddebit cards, to cryptocurrencies and blockchain. One of the aspects that games will underline is the intense competition involved in verifying and completing digital transactionsso they become permanent and unchangeably embedded in a public transaction record. The technology that enables this form of decentralized currency has the potential to bringfundamental change to existing financial systems and is of great interest to the Bank of Canada and other central banks.

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