A symbol of historic craftsmanship, the Monnaie de Paris is launching a major initiative to enhance and preserve its technical and industrial heritage. To support this effort, Arkhênum, a company within the MEMORIST group, is setting up a digitization workshop at the heart of the Pessac factory (Gironde). Its mission is to digitize an exceptional collection of more than 4,500 Ancien Régime token dies.

Founded in 864 by Charles II, the Monnaie de Paris is the oldest French institution still in operation. It mints currency for forty countries and produces more than 1.6 billion circulation coins each year, two-thirds of which are intended for export. Since 1973, the Pessac facility has been responsible for manufacturing French euro coins as well as numerous foreign currencies.

As part of the awarded contract, Arkhênum will digitize the entire collection of token-making tools over a three-year period, representing 4,500 objects. The first phase, scheduled for 2025, will focus on 1,500 dies and approximately 5,000 digital images. Each object will be photographed from three angles: axial, three-quarter, and lateral views.
The company will deploy a tailor-made workshop equipped in particular with a Phase One digital back and a ScanCube scanner. The two photographers, Stéphanie and Tom, will work under the specific conditions of the Pessac site.

The Monnaie de Paris possesses a considerable tangible and intangible heritage comprising 300,000 objects. Its Paris museum, located on Quai de Conti, showcases the arts of metalworking and offers a visitor experience combining art, history, science, and technology. An online portal progressively provides access to its collections.

This first digitization campaign aims to enrich the institutional portal and prepare for a joint online publication with the BnF, linking the tools preserved in Pessac with the tokens struck from these very dies. The technical characteristics of the objects require great precision during image capture, particularly to render material textures, lateral inscriptions, and the effects of varnish or grease. Post-processing will include the addition of a centimetric scale and the inventory number.

What does 2026 have in store for us?

In 2026 and 2027, Arkhênum will continue the digitization of the full collection of 4,500 dies. This project, the company’s first large-scale operation involving minting tools, represents a stimulating technical and scientific challenge for its teams.

This digitization project focused on minting tools is a first for Arkhênum, which has been more accustomed to digitizing coins themselves. It is an exciting challenge for our technical and R&D teams, pushing them to rethink current and future technologies as well as our production processes.