A Swiss-based foundation operating a physical and online museum for numismatics is now making podcasts available for free through iTunes U.

iTunes U is a free area of the popular online music store iTunes where many organizations and individuals can disseminate educational lectures and information.

MoneyMuseum, an effort of the Zurich-based Sunflower Foundation, is collaborating with CoinsWeekly, a hobby newsletter and website, to create the podcasts and share them with collectors.

Podcast subjects relate to money in all its facets, ranging from numismatic journeys as well as collectors’ own relationships with coins, paper money and other objects. The goal of the podcasts is to share “profound knowledge [of] the world of money … yet in an entertaining and enjoyable way,” the foundation reported.

The section "Exploring the World of Money" presents a new story about a coin, note or other numismatic object every two weeks. A five-minute podcast sheds light on the historical-cultural backdrop and explains both images and meaning.

“From the very first coin to the dollar note, from pre-monetary money to Bitcoins, from piggy-banks to documents and works of art — everything suitable to illustrate the world of money can be found here,” according to an announcement from MoneyMuseum. “And the stories from the past telling of inflation and insolvency, about investors and yield, about ruthless power seekers, desperate politicians being at a loss, but also about prudent monetary economy, gain in meaning and importance against the background of recent events.”

To reach as broad an audience as possible, Jürg Conzett, founder of the MoneyMuseum, decided to offer the podcasts for free download through iTunes U, a platform that was established in 2007. Since then, more than 300 million downloads have been offered on a wide variety of educational subjects.

The MoneyMuseum is among more than 1,000 institutions registered through the iTunes U, but Conzett said the MoneyMuseum is the first content provider to use iTunes U for a concrete analysis of money, monetary history and psychology of money.

“Anyone who wants to get information on money’s past, present and future virtually has no alternative to our offer,” he said.

The podcasts are produced in German and English, so the museum can reach both Germany and an international audience.

To accommodate those who do not have an iTunes account, MoneyMuseum now collaborates with CoinsWeekly. The free weekly journal’s website hosts all the videos as well, so users have “one click” access to the podcasts.

In addition, the videos are available for free to Android users on that platform.

To view the videos through CoinsWeekly, visit a special page on its website,

www.coinsweekly.com/en/MoneyMuseumCoinsWeekly/36.

To learn more about the MoneyMuseum, visit its website, http://sunflower.ch/en/moneymuseum/museum.