Lewis the Lion made the most of his stay in Potosì by visiting a very beautiful museum: in fact it was the former home of the Bolivian National Mint (1773-1951). A Mint is a place where a currency is printed, in other words, where coins are made. Of course it made sense that Potosì housed the National Mint as dominating the skyline was Cerro Rico – The Rich Mountain – from which silver used to be extracted: an ideal material for making coins! The mountain of Cerro Rico produced the most silver the world has ever seen and its population in the 16th Century mushroomed to one hundred thousand. In other words, it had a bigger population than Paris or London at that time and it was probably the biggest metropolis in the Americas.
During the silver boom in Potosi in the 16th Century, the first mint in Potosi was built during the period 1572 – 1575 in the main square.
The solid stone building is in Baroque style and has five stone courtyards and around one hundred and fifty rooms. Lewis the Lion thought that it was a really elegant building!
The Mint museum also keeps one of the largest art galleries in Potosi, with a collection of Spanish Colonial paintings of famous artists such as Holguin, Berrio and Niño. It also has some Indigenous art, of which the most famous painting from the eighteenth century is “The Virgen Cerro.” Lewis was very impressed and it was obvious that Potosi was once a very wealthy town, thanks to the silver mined in its mountain.
Lewis the Lion then went on a guided tour of the museum to discover more about how it used to work and how it printed the coins. The first room he went into was like walking into a wooden factory. Inside there was lots of wooden machinery which had many cogs and wheels that turned around and around. The metal rolling mills were brought from Spain in 1750 and they would flatten the silver ingots out so that coins could be printed.
He then saw many display cabinets which gave more details about how the coins were first printed, including seeing the stamps used to mint the coins. The coin collection showed coins over a period of 400 years and how they had changed and developed.
Underneath the room with the wooden cogs and wheels, Lewis the Lion discovered that the humble mule played its part in the economic wealth of Potosi as they would be used to turn the wheels above.
Click here to see how the mules used to drive the big wheels that turned the cogs in the machinery.
In another room, Lewis saw where the silver brought in from the mine would be melted down in a big furnace and then be poured into an ingot mould. Here you can see the big bellows which would fan the furnaces. Lewis the Lion thought that this looked like hot and difficult work.
Alongside the furnaces were weight-balances to check the quantity of silver as it came through into the mint. (Lewis was being a cheeky little lion here as he tried to see what would happen if he sat on top of the scales!).
The museum also has a vast collection of the minerals which can be found in the local mines which were displayed in these cases (see above). Lewis the Lion particularly liked this mineral called Bolivanita which was a pinkish colour.
Another room again showed the type of silver objects that had been made from the silver sourced in the Potosi mine. Lewis the Lion wanted to play a little trick! Does it look like he’s wearing a crown here? He hopes so as he reminded Helen that after all, lions are known as the “kings of the jungle!” (And you’ll find out more about Lewis the Lion’s jungle experiences in his forthcoming blogs!).
He was also really impressed with this armour entirely made out of silver. He imagined that somebody very wealthy must have worn this.
Finally, Lewis saw machinery that looked slightly more modern in the museum. Although even up to a century ago, man-power was still an important part of the minting process as you can see in this photo above.
After visiting lots of interesting rooms and learning lots of interesting facts about how coins are made, Lewis came out into one of the elegant courtyards of the mint.
Have you ever been to a mint before?
If you were designing a new coin or note, what would you want to include on it?
How could you make it difficult to forge?