Antica Zecca

The building, which now houses a police station, gave its name to the street now known as Via Verdi, opened near Piazza Castello in 1669 at the behest of Carlo Emanuele II, to a design by Carlo di Castellamonte. Adjacent to the Royal Academy, from 1677 the building became home to the Royal Mint, which had been located in Via Cappel Verde since 1297. The decision to move the institution to the heart of the Command Zone was based on the desire to include the most important administrative and bureaucratic structures for the exercise of power in a single area.
The palace housed not only the workshop where the coins were minted, which was regulated by Savoy laws, but also an engraving workshop where the medals, punches and cones required to make the coins were crafted.
Two generations of important engravers belonging to the Lavy family, who worked between Turin and Paris, were employed here from the 18th century: Amedeo was the author of the coin created in 1800 to celebrate Napoleon Bonaparte’s victory at the Battle of Marengo, during the period of the Subalpine Republic.
Following the Unification of Italy, several regional mints were suppressed to maintain only those in Rome and Milan: as a result, the Turin institution ceased to exist in 1870.