The Kremnica Mint

Mint (coin)

A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...

(Slovak

Slovak language

Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...

: Mincovňa Kremnica), is a state-owned mint situated in Kremnica

Kremnica

Kremnica is a town in central Slovakia. It has some 5,700 inhabitants. The well-preserved medieval town built above important gold mines is the site of the oldest still-working mint in the world.-History:...

, Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

. The Mint of Mincovňa Kremnica, š.p. was established in 1328, and for nearly seven centuries it has continuously been producing mint articles.

History

Kremnica Mint was established in 1328 when Kremnica was promoted to a free royal town by the Hungarian King Charles Robert of Anjou; the mint issued several kinds of coins early on, of which the most successful was its ducat

Ducat

The ducat is a gold coin that was used as a trade coin throughout Europe before World War I. Its weight is 3.4909 grams of .986 gold, which is 0.1107 troy ounce, actual gold weight...

. Kremnica ducats were well-known because of their good quality and were considered the hardest currency

Currency

In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...

 in Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

. Available historical records report that 21.5 million ducats were minted at the Kremnica Mint throughout its history. The aggregate value of this amount, measured at today's prices of gold, would be three billion US dollars

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

  (exclusive of the numismatic value).

The mint became very outdated by the beginning of the 20th century, and many called for new equipment and for the mint to be moved to Budapest. However, this did not happen until the end of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. As the Czech troops invaded Northern Hungary, the Károlyi government

Hungarian Democratic Republic

The Hungarian People's Republic was an independent republic proclaimed after the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918...

 ordered to move the equipment and noble metal stock to Budapest. The Hungarian Government started to mint the first coins with the faulty machines and worn-out dies in Csepel

Csepel

Csepel is the 21st district and a neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary. Csepel officially became part of Budapest on 1 January 1950.- Location :...

. Even coins minted in 1922 bore the KB mint mark.

The Czechoslovak government had to set up a new mint as well, since not more than the buildings were left in Kremnica. Work on the new machinery started in 1921. Since then, the Kremnica Mint has manufactured all the coins used by the Czechoslovak and Slovak state and minted coins for 25 other countries. Since Kremnica was the site of the sole mint of the Czechoslovak state, the Czech protectorate

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic...

 (1939–1945) was supplied with coins by Germany, and the Czech Republic (1993-) established its own mint.

Today

Kremnica Mint manufactures both circulation coins and commemorative coins for the National Bank of Slovakia (Slovak euro coins

Slovak euro coins

Slovak euro coins feature three separate designs for the three series of coins. Slovakia has been a member of the European Union since May 2004, and is a member of the European Economic and Monetary Union...

), but the Mint's available capacities and quality standards make it capable of supplying coins to other countries worldwide..

Mint marks

The first mint mark

Mint mark

A mint mark is an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced.-History:Mint marks were first developed to locate a problem. If a coin was underweight, or overweight, the mint mark would immediately tell where the coin was minted, and the problem could be located and fixed...

 on coins minted in Kremnica was C (for latin Cremnicium), this was changed to K (for Hungarian Körmöcz or German Kremnitz) under Sigismund

Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor

Sigismund of Luxemburg KG was King of Hungary, of Croatia from 1387 to 1437, of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Italy from 1431, and of Germany from 1411...

 and later K-B (Hungarian Körmöcz-Bánya or German Kremnitz-Bergstadt). With a decree from 16 June 1766, Maria Theresa

Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...

uniformized the mint marks of the Austrian Empire, the new alphabetical system showed the importance of the mint: Körmöcbánya received letter B (Vienna mint received A, Prague mint C, etc.). This was changed back to K.B. (for Körmöczbánya) temporarily in 1848-49 and finally in 1868. The K.B. mint mark was used after evacuation of the mint to Budapest until 1922. The Mincovňa Kremnica uses its initials (MK) as mint mark.

External links

• Homepage (sk, en, de)
• Mint Kremnica - short history & photos