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Corporate Section

  • Location

    Complete Address: Avenida Portales 3586, Estación Central. Description of the Area: We are located across from the Quinta Normal and next to the Arlequín Museum. How to get here by subway or city bus: From the Quinta Normal or Estación Central Subway Station, walk through the Quinta Normal or cross the USACH (University of Santiago, Chile). By bus, take Transantiago line 406 or any other line that goes down Avenida Matucana, get off at the Matucana-Portales intersection, and walk east two blocks along this avenue. Another option is to take any bus towards the Central Station (Estación Central), get off at the station and then walk through the USACH campus until you get to the Sophoras-Portales intersection, and then walk one block east until to the Print and Minting House.

  • Our History

    The Chilean Print and Minting House’s 264 years of experience producing money in Chile have made it the oldest government institution in the country. Behind the historical faces seen on the banknotes and coins, hides the anonymous labor of hundreds of artists who have inherited a noble profession that has been around for years. After more than a fourth of a millennium, the institution has expanded its services to include not just the main work of producing coins and banknotes for the national economy, but also other important and official documents and items. 1548 The absence of a national currency was a permanent obstacle for the commercial development of colonial Chile. Searching for a solution to this problem, in 1548 the Town Council of Santiago requested authorization from the Council of the Indies to mint coins in the city, a petition that, along with others made during the 17th and 18th centuries, was unsuccessful. 1741 In 1741, after the wealthy citizen Mr. Francisco García de Huidobro offered to finance the facility, the king was asked again for permission to establish the Print and Minting House of Santiago, with no cost to the Royal Treasury. 1743 On October 1, 1743, King Phillip V of Spain enacted a Royal Decree that would create the Print and Minting House of Santiago, and García de Huidobro was granted the title of Permanent Treasurer and given legal rights to the revenue generated by the institution. In exchange, García de Huidobro would have to pay the facility’s expenses and its employees’ salaries. 1749 On September 10, 1749, the first coin was minted in Santiago: A half ounce of gold with the image of Ferdinand VI. Located at the intersection of Huérfanos and Morandé, the history of the institution began and was originally known for its medieval workshop style and its manual labor. 1770 In August of 1770, because of the profits being earned that were not going to the Royal Government, King Charles III enacted a Royal Decree which established the Print and Minting House as property of the Crown. 1772 In 1772, Mateo de Toro y Zambrano was named the Institutional Chairman. Under his authority, the House was moved to the Colegio Máximo de San Miguel, ancient property owned by the Jesuits. 1782 In February of 1782, upon the request of De Toro y Zambrano, the Italian architect, Joaquín Toesca, presented the final design for the new building. 1783 The thirteen blueprint sheets were sent to Lima in 1783, where they were approved that same year. Toesca would be in charge of the construction of what would be, according to one of the project evaluators, engineer Mariano Pusterla, one of the most harmonious, ostentatious and soundly constructed buildings in the area. 1927 In 1927, after paper money had already been distributed as one of the most common methods of payment, the Print and Minting House merged with the Valued Objects Workshop, a factory that had manufactured banknotes since 1914 in its facility located in the Quinta Normal School of Agriculture. This moment gave birth to the entity that in 1953 would be called the Chilean Print and Minting House. Its previous building on Moneda Street was handed over to the President of the Republic to be used as the Presidential Palace. Currently, the Chilean Print and Minting House is a Public Service that has been centralized since 1939. On par with the process of industrialization, the Institution began integrative development, incorporating high technology, increasing its employee base and expanding its scope of activity, transformations and evolution that have continued until today.

  • Organization Chart
  • Telephone Directory

    Area Telephone Management (56)-(2) 598 51 01 Quality Control Team (56)-(2) 598 51 12 Legal Department (56)-(2) 598 51 30 Security (56)-(2) 598 51 41 Planning and IT (56)-(2) 598 52 61 Internal Auditing (56)-(2) 598 51 51 Commercial (56)-(2) 598 53 71 Human Resources (56)-(2) 598 52 02 Purchasing Department (56)-(2) 598 53 51 Production (56)-(2) 598 54 01 Quality Control (56)-(2) 598 54 20 Monetary Production (56)-(2) 598 54 31 Currency Printing (56)-(2) 598 54 71 Maintenance (56)-(2) 598 54 51

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