Venezuelan Mint

The Venezuelan Mint (Spanish: Casa de la Moneda de Venezuela, CMV) is an institution of the Central Bank of Venezuela, operating as a general management unit, in charge of the minting of coins and the printing of banknotes of legal tender in Venezuela. It is also responsible for the production of valued securities such as postage stamps, revenue stamps, stamped paper, Venezuelan passports, and university and high-school diplomas, among others. Its operation is set out in the legal provisions of the Central Bank for the issuance of banknotes and coins. The institution is responsible for ensuring sufficient means of payment exist in the country to keep the national economy functioning. It holds the rank of a General Management with the status of a Vice-Presidency within the Central Bank of Venezuela. Its origin dates back to the colonial era, when a mint installed in Caracas began producing coins for the then-province around 1802. It is now headquartered at the Hacienda La Placera in Maracay. History Colonial period The manufacture of money in Venezuela began at the beginning of the 19th century, during the Captaincy General of Venezuela. Captain General Manuel de Guevara y Vasconcelos decreed the elimination of the pieces and tokens manufactured by merchants on their own to carry out their operations, in order to centralize those processes. On 12 June 1802 the Royal Mint of Caracas was installed, which began the minting of copper coins without seals, being the only colony to do so. From 1810, the Mint would mint both silver coins of 1 and 2 reales, and copper coins of ½ and ¼ real. Independence period During the Venezuelan War of Independence, the establishment changed hands many times between royalists and patriots. The institution was in the possession of the republican patriots until the royalist offensive of 1814. The then-Intendant commissioned Felipe de Llaguno to continue with the issuance of coins, but in 1815 the royalist Pablo Morillo ordered the closure of its activities. However, the following year a royal order decreed its reopening, effective 1 October 1816. Meanwhile, different localities of the country that were in the hands of the patriots issued unofficial coins for the use of the independence forces. The final triumph of the patriots and the creation of Gran Colombia meant the rise of coin issuance in Bogotá, Popayán and Caracas. The minting in Caracas between 1821 and 1823 consisted of coins of two reales and of a cuartillo (quarter-real). Nevertheless, there were difficulties in the supply of metal resources for the work and in the distribution, so Carlos Soublette, then Intendant of Venezuela, ordered its closure on 31 January 1823 due to the shortage of "precious metals to mint". Republican period For the following six years, resealed colonial-era coins were used to meet demand. Difficulties continued through 1828, so the Board of Arbitrators decided on the minting of low-grade coins in the amount necessary for finances. Thus the Mint was reopened on 14 August 1829, also decreeing the production of forty thousand pesos in macuquino quarter-reales. However, on 5 July 1830 the Congress agreed to close the establishment definitively. After the dissolution of Gran Colombia, the circulation of coins until 1843 grew because national pieces began to be produced in factories abroad. Decades later, in 1885, General Antonio Guzmán Blanco signed an agreement in London with Miguel Tejera for the installation of a new Mint based in Caracas or La Guaira, with gold extracted from the mines of Guayana as its raw material. Tejera transferred the concession to the French company C. A. La Monnaie, which was related to the business group of the Péreire brothers. The contract, valid for 20 years, stipulated that the new institute had to mint four million bolívares in gold and silver. The new Mint was inaugurated by Guzmán Blanco on 16 October 1886, and was located at the Esquina El Cuño. The government became the supervisor of the minting of coins through a National Inspector belonging to the Ministry of the Interior. The first Inspector appointed was Jacinto Pachano. According to the account, when the Inspector showed the President a sample of the first gold coins this Mint produced, he exclaimed: "¡Qué bello, Pachano!" ("How beautiful, Pachano!"). From this, the coins were nicknamed in that manner. In October of that year, foreign currency was declared a commodity and its importation was prohibited, in addition to ordering that the banknotes issued by the Banco Comercial and the Banco de Carabobo be received in all national offices and continue to circulate at the value set by the market, measures that allowed Venezuela to have its own monetary system. In 1887, Congress approved legislation reserving the power to determine the number of coins for circulation. However, the Mint registered a surplus in minting, exceeding the established amount, which generated imbalances in finances. The merchants' protest before the acting President, Hermógenes López, led Congress to order the cessation of the Mint's minting activities. The establishment was liquidated due to disagreements with the company La Monnaie, but in 1890 the Government acquired the Mint's facilities and became responsible for the national coinage. From that year, Venezuelan coins were again manufactured abroad. Contemporary period The idea of a Venezuela-based mint was again taken up in 1983, to improve the country's degree of autonomy in the supply of means of payment. The authorities of the Central Bank of Venezuela acquired a plot of 10,367 m2 adjacent to its headquarters in Caracas, where the factory was planned to be built, in what is today the Plaza Juan Pedro López. The Mint of Brazil was contracted to carry out the viability and feasibility studies. Given the positive results, the Central Bank approved the project. The headquarters was reassigned to Hacienda La Placera on the outskirts of Maracay for strategic reasons of accessibility and proximity to the ports of La Guaira and Puerto Cabello. The complex began construction in 1989; it was overseen by architect Eduardo Sanabria, with structural calculations carried out by engineers Ernesto Martínez and Carlos Luis Cosson, while engineering, procurement and construction management was conducted by the firm Vepica. Operations began in September 1999. In subsequent decades, the Venezuelan Mint took on a central role during periods of currency restructuring. As hyperinflation eroded the Venezuelan bolívar in the 2010s and 2020s, the Central Bank of Venezuela coordinated through the Mint multiple banknote redenominations, including the 2018 introduction of the bolívar soberano (which removed five zeros from the currency) and the 2021 introduction of the bolívar digital (which removed a further six zeros). See also Economy of Venezuela Venezuelan bolívar List of mints References External links Casa de la Moneda de Venezuela at Central Bank of Venezuela (in Spanish)