Royal Mint of Burgos, Spain
| Name of the mint | Royal Mint of Burgos |
|---|---|
| Name in the local language | Real Casa de la Moneda de Burgos |
| Place | Burgos, Spain |
| Dates of operation | 1100-1681 |
| See also | Wikidata (Q9580), Wikipedia |
At the Royal Mint of Burgos, for six centuries (12th to 18th centuries), the so-called “Dineros burgaleses” were minted: blanca, seisenes, novenes, maravedís, obolos, meajas, pepiones, ducats, cuartillos, doblas, escudos, excelentes, reales, ochavos, cornados, and the other denominations that gold, silver, billon, and copper coins adopted over time. The presence of the letter B on the coin identified it as a production of the Royal Mint of Burgos.
The first coins to circulate in the New World were minted in Seville and Burgos for shipment to the recently discovered island of Santo Domingo.
The geographical location of the Burgos mint, the northernmost in Castile, explains the influence of trade with Flanders, which provided access to the silver mines of Germany and Central Europe. Its location in an area where the main trade routes of the Crown of Castile converged allowed it to become a benchmark in coinage production for the entire kingdom between the 13th and 16th centuries.
The change in monetary policy brought about by the discovery of America led to the decline of the Burgos Mint, which began minting mainly in billon and copper, with the Duke of Lerma as its treasurer from 1601. Counter-stamping coins was a key focus of its activity in the 17th century.
Although the Burgos Mint had completed its last minting operation in 1681, suffering flooding in the following two years, it finally closed in 1728, due to the centralization implemented by the Bourbon administration in the 18th century, following the accession of King Philip V to the throne.
