The Musée de la Monnaie (The French Mint)

Unusual Paris Museums and Galleries

The Musée de la Monnaie (The French Mint) is conveniently located in the suitably impressive neo-classic Hôtel de la Monnaie facing the Louvre, and offers tours and activities that are especially orientated toward a young audience.

It also regularly organizes exhibits, private sales, concerts and auctions for numismatists and medal collectors (it’s responsible for medals and regalia as well as money). Although the building still produces medals, and used to be used for minting the coins, the current currency is now produced in Pessac (Gironde).

Several guided tours available

The museum offers several guided tours for groups or individuals with either an audio or human guide. The audio guide is available in 5 languages: French, English, German, Italian and Spanish.

Museum Tour for Individuals (including audio guide)
The main audio-guided tour takes you through the numismatic history of France, in parallel illustrating the main development stages of the different numismatic techniques to strike coins. To liven this up, they’ve re-created scenes which feature individuals using coins in different time periods: a chief of a Gaul tribe, a tavern owner, a merchant under the reign of Philip-Augustus, a bourgeois, a beggar under Louis XI and quite a few other characters.
Price: €8 including audio guide and museum admission

Architectural Tour for Individuals (1 hour)
The Hotel de la Monnaie (Palais Conti) is one of the most beautiful neo-classic monuments of the 18th century. It is the work of the architect Jacques-Denis Antoine, to whom Louis XV entrusted the building from 1771 to 1775. A museum guide takes you around the Palais, an amazing place not only because of its history but also because of its present day role. This tour includes a visit to the reception halls and "other unknown aspects of this magnificent architecture of the XVIII century".
By reservation only at musee@monnaiedeparis.fr
Price : €6 and free for visitors under 16 years old
Sunday at 3:00 p.m. (Check whether this time is still the same, it may have changed)

Tour of la Monnaie’s Workshops
This guided tour (by a human) takes you through the workshops where they strike medals, the art foundry and finally the workshop where medals are chiselled and patina added. This tour is available by reservation only at: : musee@monnaiedeparis.fr
Guided Individual Tour: Wednesday and Friday at 2:15 p.m.
Price : €3 per person, free for persons under 16 years old

The museum boutique sells all kinds of money and medal connected souvenirs, and a lot besides – they do a nifty line in gold jewellery for example – even a "Hello, Kitty and Daniel in Versailles" €50 gold 1 oz proof medallion selling for €912.00 including VAT (I kid you not).

Musée de la Monnaie
(The French Mint)

Monnaie de Paris
11, quai de Conti
75270 Paris Cedex 06
FRANCE
Tél : +33 (0)1.40.46.56.66
Fax : +33 (0)1.43.26.90.73
http://www.monnaiedeparis.com/

Métro: Odéon – Pont-Neuf – Saint-Michel.
RER A: Châtelet-Les Halles
RER B et C: Saint-Michel
Bus: 58 – 70 – 24 – 27
Open: Museum Tue – Fri 11 am – 5.30 pm. Sat & Sun Noon – 5.30 pm. Closed on Monday. Boutique Mon – Fri 10 am – 6.15 pm. Closed on Sunday.
Entry: Varies, see tour options below

Next page : Musée du Moyen Age Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny

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