72 The power of history The thing that most fascinates Santander Cultural is the power of storytelling. There are many possible narratives. Each visitor coming here carries their own story; our exhibitions tell stories; the building that houses them: stories at its heart; Every movie shown in our movie theater, stories. In our collection, this could not be different. Art, whatever its shape, makes us travel in time - past, present or future. The historical collection Santander Brasil consists of items that transport us to remote times. We traveled centuries, and thus we understand our present better. We do this through coins, banknotes and medals of different regions and times. We observe the machinery, the furniture. We walk past drawings, sketches, photographs, documents. And we love every discovery. num i smat i c s C o l l e c t i o n s a n ta n d e r b r a s i l And in order to preserve so many stories, from so many different times and from regions far and near, we are proud to keep such a rich collection. In this book, we present a part of it: our numismatic collection. In it, it is possible to find coins from five continents and to know Brazilian history in detail - after all, these pieces are responsible for narrating the facts that we know today, from ancient times to the contemporary world. And this is something that numismatists - those who specialize in the study of coins and stories they tell - know well. We hope these stories we are about to tell will delight everyone - experts or not. Good reading! Marcos Madureira President of Santander Cultural