Paris Museum: La Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint)

Paris is filled with art and history museums. And many of those Paris museums are filled with tourists from around the world, each one trying to grab a selfie with the Mona Lisa or a Monet. But my wife and I discovered a museum that’s off the beaten path and worth every moment we spent exploring it.

First off, don’t get hung up on the name. La Monnaie de Paris is listed by multiple names online and on maps – Paris Money Museum or the Paris Mint are the two most popular ones. But I’ll refer to this Paris museum as La Monnaie de Paris (pronounced moan-A deh Pah-ree) in this article.

I loved my visit to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia a few years ago. But La Monnaie de Paris blew that place out of the water. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find at this Paris museum – which is great for kids and adults. And best of all – everything is available in English, French or Spanish.

Engage with Interactive Coin and Medal-making Machines

After handing our tickets to the person at the entrance, we were given small, blank silver coins. We were told we would stamp them during our tour. So we pocketed them until we arrived at that part of the exhibit.

We then walked past some glass windows with work rooms behind them. If you time your visit just right, you’ll see workers melting metal, making coins and designing medals. We didn’t time our visit right, but it was something that would’ve been cool to have seen.

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On the second floor, we learned all about how the stamps are made, We even had a practice run at doing a hand-held stamp method. My wife was pretty excited when she got a nearly perfect stamp. See the video below.

Some of the other exhibits showed how machines are used to make identical stamps that could be used to press coins. We spent a good 20 minutes checking out the machines.

When we got to the spot to stamp our blank coins, we placed it into the little drawer of the machine, pushed it in and turned the wheel on top. We then reversed everything we had just done and saw our blank coin was no longer blank. We had stamped our own coin! How cool is that?!?!?!

Learn About The Evolution of the Coins

After learning how coins are stamped, continue to the next room to learn about the history of the coins used in France. During my first time in France, Francs were the monetary unit. Shortly after my initial visit (so the early 2000s), it switched to the Euro.

At one of the exhibits, you take a coin and insert it into the slot (as pictured above). A gentleman then walks on the screen and explains the personage on the coin and what years the coin was minted. We learned all about the Phrygian cap (or Liberty cap), which is the red cap you often see worn by French revolutionaries.

I loved how interactive those exhibits were to learn about the coins. In fact, every room of this Paris museum had interactive touchscreens.

The Elements, Purses, Coin Collecting and Other Exhibits

At the start of the museum, you can learn all about the elements used in coin making. Metals like gold, solver, bronze, and more. Each element has descriptions in French, English and Spanish.

Another exhibit on the second floor displays different styles of purses or coin holders. It was interesting to learn what some were made of – from leather to seashells.

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The room dedicated to numismatists (or coin collectors). While you can see some rare coins on display, you should definitely use some of the touchscreens to learn a little more about the coins.

My wife searched through some coins on one of the screens to pull out the ones she thought were the most rare – thus of greater value. I did the same, and the screen then added up the value of each of our coins to see who had the better eye for more valuable coinage. Umm… I don’t remember who won. 😉

Plan on spending about 1-2 hours in the museum so you can experience what there is to see and do. There’s a lot of interactive elements that make it fun and engaging – so it’s among the great Paris museums for kids, too.

The Details

Address: 11, Quai de Conti – 75006 PARIS. There are several metro stops nearby – Pont Neuf (Line 7), Odéon (Lines 4 and 10), Saint-Michel (Line 4).

Cost: Full price tickets are 10 Euro (roughly $11) per person. They can be purchased online or at the museum.

Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Open till 9 p.m. on Wednesdays. Closed on Jan. 1, May 1, and Dec. 25.

Website: https://www.monnaiedeparis.fr/

Phone: +33 (0)1 40 46 56 66

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