Mint

Mint (Latin, moneta, “mint” or “money”; derived from Moneta, a surname of the goddess Juno, whose temple at Rome was used for coining money), establishment for making coins, or other material designed to circulate as money. Before the coinage of money, trading had been accomplished either by exchange of goods in bulk or by use of granular or bar gold and silver in the settling of accounts. This system was cumbersome and inconvenient and acted as an obstacle to the expansion of commerce and industry. The invention of coinage, or minting, was a solution of this problem.

The first official mints were probably established around the 6th century bc in the district of Lydia in Asia Minor and in China. During the next few centuries, a great many varieties of coins were issued by the Greek and other city-states. Under the Roman Empire, however, this multiplicity was ended, and the first important standardization of sizes, weights, and values of coins was inaugurated through the banning of private or unauthorized minting. China retained standard centralized minting during its eras of imperial centralization, but in eras of political fragmentation separate princedom or state maintained their own mints.

Minting again became chaotic throughout Europe after the collapse of the empire of Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor, in the 9th century. During the Middle Ages, hundreds of local authorities minted their own money, and kings, nobles, and individual cities all issued coins without regard to uniformity or general convenience. After the Norman Conquest, for example, as many as 70 mints existed in Britain alone. The issuing of the first paper currency in 9th-century China under the Tang dynasty was at first handled by private bankers, but became a government minting monopoly in the 11th century under the Song dynasty. Bank notes were for much of their early history made by and drawn only on the issuing bank; only later with the institution of central banks were they printed by government mints.

The rise of centralized modern states made currency uniformity possible for wider areas. However, many anomalies remained. In the 16th century, Spain and Portugal established independent mints in Central and South America to coin the flow of gold and silver from their colonial domains. In Tokugawa Japan, each daimyo fief had the right to mint its own currency. Only in the modern era has the dominance of the national mint been assured.

Most countries now have a single mint or minting authority, although actual production of currency may take place at more than one centre. Some countries have no mint, but have their currency made by other mints. This may be for technical reasons (especially lack of native skills), or political reasons, or where local demand for currency is not enough to make a national mint economically viable. For example, the Royal Mint of Great Britain produces money for numerous British dependencies and Commonwealth countries, as well as Ireland, Iceland, Jordan, Uruguay, and other states, having provided this service since the 16th century. In the European Union since the introduction of the single European currency, the Euro, in January 2002, all of the national central banks of the 12 participating nations are able to produce Euro coins, but only the European Central Bank in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has the exclusive right to authorize the production of Euro notes.

Mints normally handle the destruction of worn-out currency as well as the creation of new currency to replace it, burning or otherwise destroying it to avoid risk of fraud. This creates certain legal peculiarities: in most countries, any money entering these currency destruction facilities automatically becomes void, whether due for destruction or not. Many mints also engage in precious metal refining, high-quality printing work or issuing medals, as well as minting money.