Slovakia · 700th anniversary of the Kremnica Mint

Kremnica is located in an ore-rich area of central Slovakia that belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages. Gold and silver deposits made the region economically interesting to the rulers. The extraction of precious metals and their processing into coins were closely linked: having its own mint made it easier to control the extracted metal and the production of royal currency.

The legal basis for Kremnica’s rise was established under King Charles I of Hungary, also known as Charles Robert of Anjou. In 1328, he granted the town the status of a free royal mining town and permitted the establishment of a mint there. Kremnica was thus integrated into the royal economic and administrative system. Coin minting was connected not only with mining but also with the monetary policy of the kingdom. During this period, gold coins modelled on the Florentine florin were minted in Hungary, among others; the Kremnica mint was involved in this development.

Over the centuries, the political circumstances and currencies changed. Kremnica initially belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary, later to Czechoslovakia and finally to Slovakia. The mint survived these changes and remained associated with the production of coins. Its history thus also reflects the state changes in Central Europe.

The occasion commemorated by the coin focuses less on an individual person than on an institution and its long activity in one place. The establishment of the mint also represents the interplay of mining, royal financial administration and skilled minting technology in medieval Kremnica. The choice of the anniversary makes it possible to summarise this development, as well as the continuing role of the place in the monetary history of Slovakia, on a coin.