Museum of 11 Conti, Monnaie de Paris, France

The museum of 11 Conti is a museum dedicated to the know-how of the Monnaie de Paris. It presents direct views on some workshops of the last factory in Paris, the manufacturing techniques and the metals used, the equipment used to manufacture it. The museum is very interactive and the visitor is an actor of his visit.

The museum is attached to the institution that makes money in France, the Monnaie de Paris. It is located in the hotel de la Monnaie, 11 quai de Conti in Paris.

History
Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) is the French oldest institution. Founded by Charles II “the Bald” in the 9th Century, it has gone through every period in French history. Since 1973, Monnaie de Paris has divided its activities between two sites: the historic Quai de Conti site, where medals and coins made of precious metals are minted, and the Pessac factory, where legal currency is made at the rate of 9 million coins a day.

The first museum: 1833
Created in 1833 by Jean-Baptiste Henry Collin de Sussy, the museum was inaugurated by Louis-Philippe I November 8, 1833. He had for conservative Fernand Mazerolle (1868-1941).

The second museum: 1991
A new museum is presented from 1991, designed by Katherine Gruel, for the Antique part, Jean Belaubre, for the medieval part and Bruno Collin for the modern and contemporary parts.

All three have signed several volumes of the museum’s catalog of collections.

It closed on July 31st, 2010, with a project of works for a duration of two years.

The third museum: 2017
After seven years of reflection, choice, work, the museum of 11 Conti reopens on September 30, 2017. With nearly 1,800 exhibits on 1200 m², the new museum exhibits in an interactive and fun scenography highlighting the know-how of the last factory in Paris. Also exhibited are some of the masterpieces of the Monnaie de Paris collection, such as an antique gold creseid, a gold crown of Philip VI (Capetian coins), a piece of 10 gold louis, a platinum meter meter, a golden ōban, a collection of Akan weights, the treasure of Hue, etc.

Labeled museum of France, the Monnaie de Paris also has for mission the management and management of the reserves, inventory, proofing, restoration, scientific studies, collaborations with other institutions.

The museum of 11 Conti
Discover our heritage collections, workshops of excellence and our trade secret. The museum of 11 Conti is a unique venue of full-sensory experiences in the realm of metal, designed to appeal to all publics, showcasing our heritage and our know-how.

After nine centuries of roaming the capital, in the 18th century, Monnaie de Paris settled in a bespoke building, the royal manufacture of coins and medals, at 11 Quai de Conti. After minting coins for the state for 1150 years, Monnaie de Paris possesses invaluable tangible and intangible heritage: a collection of 170,000 objects, artisan skills that have inherited centuries-old traditions, and a site made up of 17th and 18th century buildings.

The 11 Conti Museum showcases this exceptional heritage. Metal is presented in all its forms and from all angles of approach: raw or transformed; from natural history collections or the result of scientific research; works of art and the peak of technical progress; vectors of economic exchanges; archaeological discoveries; as a witness to changing trends; in the writing of our symbols; and as a mirror of civilisations. Art, science and technology, history of peoples, tastes and economy, archaeology and sociology, the 11 Conti Museum brings together all these disciplines to express all the richness and diversity of the collections and know-how of Monnaie de Paris.

The 11 Conti Museum offers you a unique interactive and sensory experience involving metal, know-how, and the heritage of Monnaie de Paris. Using a universal design process, the Museum is intended for the general public and empowers you to offers a personal experience taking behind the scenes of this temple of coinage and artistic workmanship.

The Museum brings together several disciplines (art, science and technology, history of peoples, tastes and economy, archaeology and sociology) to express the wealth of talent working in the manufacture and the richness of the heritage collections.

There are three main areas that make up the core of the 11 Conti Museum experience.

Science & Technology
Discover Monnaie de Paris’ arts and crafts, its manufacturing secrets and the methods it uses to mint coins and produce works of art.

Create
How does the Monnaie de Paris, the french Mint, make its coins and artworks? The 11 Conti Museum invites you to meet 500 employees who go about their daily work in Paris and at the factory in Pessac. From hammer striking to screw presses to modern presses… over the course of time, methods have evolved, achieving ever sharper and more precise results. Visit our facilities and our machinery along a circuit of discovery of our secrets and our manufacturing methods.

Behind The Scenes At Our Workshops
See some of our workshops during working hours for a demonstration of the outstanding know-how and skills of our craftspeople. You will visit our foundry, our chasing and finishing workshop, and the Great Coin Mint, the heart of the mint. It was refurbished so that part of the minting process of the commemorative 2-euro coins could be carried out there. Special minting programmes for these coins take place every year according to our planning schedule. Stimulate your senses by guessing scents associated with some activities of the workshops and discover the work of craftsmen during demonstrations of engraving which are also held here three times a week.

An Encounter With Our Crafts
At the centre of the manufacturing room: the focus is on the Monnaie de Paris craftsmanship, with shops for engraving, casting, stamping, patina application, chasing, jewellery making, and enamelling. Tools, works in various stages of completion, demonstrations, and explainer videos show you the different techniques used by these arts and crafts.

Strike your own token
Have fun while learning how coins and medals are struck in our workshops. The hammer and the screw press will no longer hold any secrets for you! Add to your knowledge by examining the objects in our collections on display in our showcases, bearing witness to the development of minting methods.

Treasures & History Of Art
Unseen treasures, objects and coins in our heritage collections are displayed in a modern setting, as witness by the passionate enthusiasts.

Reveal
In addition to the workshops, the 11 Conti Museum gives pride of place to an extraordinary heritage, with some 2,500 items from its collections on display, over 1,800 of which are on view just for the discovery circuit. These include items never before shown to the public.

Treasures To Be Discovered
Who has never dreamt of seeing a treasure with one’s own eyes? At the 11 Conti Museum, treasures have been found and are only too glad to reveal themselves for you to admire. There are treasures with incredible stories, including sunken treasure, a chance discovery, a war prize, and buried treasure. View the Hué treasure with its hoard gold and silver bars, the prize of our collection.

Extraordinary Works
Every coin and artwork has its own story to tell. The creators, craftspeople, and people behind them bear witness, telling you about the origin of the superb coins and works in our collections. Presented in singular cases, these creations yield up to you the extraordinary details that make them unique.

Coin Collector
Do you have the makings of a coin collector? Use selections of repeated pieces to discover the art of collecting with friends or family. Be the first to complete collections of coins and medals having different motifs.

History & Economics
Trade, barter, and exchange, whether based on coins, materials, or know-how, are at the heart of history and economics.

Trade
Trade, barter, and exchange, whether based on coins, materials, or know-how, are at the heart of history and economics. The 11 Conti Museum invites you to take a tour of its coins and their use around the world.

Decode A Coin
Discover the functions and uses of coins, their different shapes, and the symbolism behind each motif. With the help of the Numiscope, an interactive 3D installation, spot the infinitely small and let yourself be drawn in by the coins. Then travel around the world and let the display of traditional coins show you that coins are not always round or made of metal.

All States Of Metal
Metal, the raw material used to make coins, comes from different places and occurs in different forms: unrefined metal, processed metal, sublimated metal.
On a different scale, find out how the chemical elements of the periodic table are used in the manufacturing process at our dedicated materials room.

Passing On Our Know-How
The Monnaie de Paris actively seeks to encourage callings in unusual trades and crafts. And so we are committed to helping to hand our unique skills down by revealing the secrets of these crafts to you. The many testimonials by the dedicated and steadfast men and women who ensure the quality of our productions from generation to generation bear witness to the fact that applied arts and crafts are indeed a great adventure.

Collections

The funds
The museum is rich with a fund of nearly 200,000 items whose proofing is in progress. Nearly 70,000 medals, 40,000 coins, 18,000 paper coins, 5,000 tools constitute the bulk of the fund. The rest consists of scientific and metrological objects, art objects, paintings and plans.

The bulk of the historical archives, 13,020 printed volumes, 98,400 publications, 1,454 manuscript volumes, 18,227 bundle files which constituted the institution’s fund, were donated to the Economic and Financial Archives Department of the Ministry of Finance. reasons for preventive conservation.

Exhibition
The visitor is welcomed by a view of the art foundry workshop. A first room presents the raw materials used from antiquity to the present day in the monetary, medaillical and metrological fields. The platinum standard meter and its counterpart the standard kilogram are thus, for the first time, presented together to the public. Platinum, gold, silver, but also iron, zinc, tin, nickel are presented by means of historical objects and ores.

The ores exposed are an echo of the Laboratoire des Essais installed since the inauguration of the Quà © tà © Conti Coinage in 1775. They were studied there from 1783 in the Royal School of Mines, established at the time of its creation in the Honorary lounge of the hotel by the chemist Balthazar Georges Sage. Still today a laboratory studies metals to develop new alloys and fight against counterfeiting. A periodic table of interactive elements is presented, to underline the preponderant role of physics and chemistry in the manufacture of metallic money as fiduciary money.

The currencies manufacturing, medals, art fonts and jewelry, are explained in the next room (which housed the xx th century the lobby rolling mills). Engraving is explained in all its aspects, ancient and modern: direct cutting, modeling, reduction, electro-erosion, computer-assisted drawing, laser engraving. Engraving demonstrations take place three times a week. Typing is then explained, since the period called “the hammer” to the era of “the press” through the iconic period of the balance, including several examples of the xviii th and xix th centuries are presented. Of monetary corners to hammer, punch thexviii th century, and two pieces of 10 louis d’or are particularly exposed in this room.

On the lower level, in the former hall of the Grand Monnayage, an allegory of restored Fortune for the reopening of the museum is on display. The manufacture of French currencies and the fight against counterfeiting is presented in these rooms. A magnificent view of the factory installed in the Grand Monnayage is offered to visitors.

The functions and uses of money are evoked in the following rooms: regalian objects, exchange, account, hoarding, etc. Traditional coins are on display: pagnes, cowries, tea bricks, guinzés, mitako (copper bars), etc. A device, the Numiscope, allows to discover in augmented reality the secrets of emblematic currencies of History.

A room is devoted to numismatics.

Then comes a treasure room where are notably explained those of rue Mouffetard (Paris) and Hue (Vietnam).

Exceptional objects are also part of the collections, such as the Venus cello in solid gold Arman, the Ultimate franc of Philippe Stark. They are exhibited in the last room devoted to artisans and artists who collaborate at the Monnaie de Paris. Portraits of craftsmen and details of the techniques for making fonts, decorations and medals complete this section.

See, touch, listen, smell… Explore the themes of the museum using all your senses, especially when handling materials and tactile graphic media. Thanks to the clever installation of windows looking into the workshops, combined with experts’ interviews and testimonials, you have the privilege to meet craftsmen in their daily work. Follow your nose: the workshops are filled with a blend of industrial notes thanks to olfactory devices. Take advantage of the preparation and the casting of art fonts in the Foundry.