National Mint of Bolivia (Casa Nacional de Moneda)
The colonial royal mint of Potosí, a vast baroque complex of five courtyards, now a museum and archive.
Silver from the Cerro Rico made Potosí one of the largest cities in the world, and the Spanish crown ordered a new and heavily built mint to replace the sixteenth-century works. Construction ran from 1759 to 1773 and produced a baroque complex of about fifteen thousand square metres with five courtyards, more than a hundred rooms and walls up to a metre and a half thick. Coins were struck here for Spain until 1825, briefly for the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, and then for the Republic of Bolivia until 1951.
The building is now a national repository holding a museum and the historical archive of Potosí. Galleries cover colonial painting, with a notable group of works by Melchor Pérez de Holguín, silverwork, religious sculpture, minerals and a numismatic collection that traces the coinage struck on the premises. The great wooden laminating machines driven by mules survive in their original rooms, and a plaster mascarón added in the nineteenth century hangs over the first courtyard. Visits are made with a guide.
Highlights
- Wooden laminating machines once driven by mule teams
- Paintings by Melchor Pérez de Holguín and the Potosí school
- Numismatic collection of coins struck on the site
- The mascarón, a grinning plaster mask over the first courtyard
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