The Hall Mint: a hotspot in Europe. Press release

Over a dozen ministers, politicians and other high-ranking figures were present when the Hall Mint was officially reopened as a museum in 1975 – exactly fifty years ago.
Anyone who thinks this event was a one-off is mistaken, however: for over six hundred years, the Hall Mint was a meeting place for crowned heads who shaped the exciting and eventful history of the Hall mint over the centuries.

The first prominent figure not only to establish the mint in Hall but also to visit it repeatedly throughout his reign was Duke Sigismund the Coin-Rich. In 1477, he had the mint relocated from Merano to Hall, to the Sparberegg estate. Not only that; Sigismund also took a keen technical interest in coinage and in the monetary reform that would revolutionise the coinage system across Europe. The legend of the Hall Mint soon spread amongst all the royal houses of Europe, making Sigismund a sought-after match amongst the European aristocracy, not least because he was the closest confidant of the Emperor at the time.
When he abdicated in 1490, handing the country over to Emperor Maximilian I because he himself had no male heir, he had three basins full of coins placed by his deathbed in 1496, because he ‘wanted to grasp silver one last time’, as the chronicler reports – Sigismund lived up to his nickname right to the very end.

Emperor Max I found the windfall from Hall very useful for financing his policies and wars. Unfortunately, he did not manage his finances particularly well, with the result that the Tyrolean silver had to be pawned off in ever-increasing amounts, and from 1516 onwards the mint ceased operations entirely.
Nevertheless, the mint still attracts visitors. For example, in 1496, Maximilian’s son, Philip the Handsome, King of Spain, visited Hall. So too did Maria Sforza, Maximilian’s second wife: the Emperor had a commemorative thaler struck in her honour, as he had done for his first wife, Mary of Burgundy, following their deaths.
Archbishops and bishops followed the Emperor and the King, and Max never missed an opportunity to have guldiner minted in Hall distributed throughout Europe as gifts.
The mint welcomed its last great contemporaries in 1563. Emperor Ferdinand I, later Emperor Maximilian II, and Archduke Charles came to Hall in the summer to ceremonially break ground on a new tunnel for the Hall salt mines and also visited the mint. Unfortunately, the mint was in a dilapidated state at Sparberegg.

It was not until Archduke Ferdinand II, who relocated the mint to Hasegg Castle, that new and better conditions were created.
However, the future of the mint hung by a thread at that time: in Mühlau near Innsbruck, successful trials of roller minting had been taking place since 1564. Archduke Ferdinand now introduced this technique of water-powered mechanical coinage to Hall, which was now capable of minting five times the previous volume – thereby propelling Hall to become one of Europe’s most important mints!
The revolutionary technology triggered a rush of visitors. Among those who came were the Cardinal of Augsburg, the Duke of Bavaria with his entire family, and envoys from Hungary and Bohemia, all of whom wanted to see the ‘miracle machine’ with their own eyes. The King of Spain was also interested in the new machines. Archduke Ferdinand II therefore had two machines made for Spain and even provided his own staff.
The famous philosopher Michel de Montaigne also visited Hall in 1580, as did Archduke Ernst of Austria, the papal envoy and many other visitors – Hall was once again the hotspot for the powerful!
Following the death of Ferdinand II, Emperor Rudolf II took over the administration of Tyrol on an interim basis until 1602. At this time, the mint once again came into the spotlight because the Emperor had to have large quantities of Spanish aid money reminted into talers to fund the fight against the Turks, in order to pay his Landsknecht troops. Taler minting reached an unprecedented peak at this time. Emperor Maximilian II and many high-ranking visitors also stayed at the mint at the beginning of the 17th century.

From 1650 onwards, the mint received hardly any famous visitors, but all manner of other visitors instead. The influx of travellers was so great that visitor regulations had to be put in place for the mint, so as to allow interested parties to view the premises whilst at the same time turning away suspicious visitors.
Empress Maria Theresa’s visit marked the mint’s final heyday. Between 1748 and 1768, the world-famous Maria Theresa thaler was minted over 17 million times and used as legal tender throughout the world. In the decades that followed, however, the Hall Mint gradually lost its importance. When Tyrol became part of Bavaria in 1806, ‘Sechser’ and ‘Kreuzer’ coins were still being struck before the Hall Mint was closed down in 1808. Nevertheless, Hall bid farewell with a minting ‘without the grace of God’ – the ‘Hoferzwanziger’ struck from fine silver during the 1809 struggle for freedom. These were the first coins of the people, as they had no princely patron, and bore only the Tyrolean eagle, with the modest yet proud inscription ‘Gefürstete Grafschaft Tirol’ (Principality of Tyrol).

Whilst the Hall Mint faded into the background in the period from 1809 to the mid-20th century, many distinguished figures began to visit it again from 1975 onwards. At that time, the Hall Mint was reopened as the “Alte Münze” museum and produced a 100-schilling commemorative coin to mark the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck.
Among the prominent visitors were the then Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Finance, Hannes Androsch; provincial governors; the then Federal Minister for Science and Research, Dr Herta Firnberg; as well as provincial governors from North and South Tyrol, ministers and ambassadors from other countries. The Hall Mint – once again a European hotspot!

In 2003, the museum was completely renovated and renamed “Münze Hall”. Since then, Münze Hall has doubled its exhibition space and introduced new attractions. Even today, special and commissioned coin strikes are produced for companies, events and private celebrations. The museum’s 50th anniversary will take place in 2025.
Full details at www.muenze-hall.at