Museo dei Luigini e Zecca Seborghina (Palazzo dei Monaci)

Two small museums preserve Seborga's heritage of coins called luigini. Historical pieces struck between 1666 and 1687 are displayed alongside later symbolic issues, while minting machinery recalls the vaulted room in Palazzo dei Monaci where the original mint operated.

Why it matters

The museums document Seborga's history of coinage. In a vaulted room of Palazzo dei Monaci, the village minted silver from December 1666 to October 1687 for its prince-abbots. The Museo dei Luigini houses the Minervini Collection; the Museo della Zecca, run by the local Pro Seborga association, presents minting equipment. Together they document the historic coinage and its later symbolic revival.

What to notice

The Minervini Collection includes modern symbolic luigini and rare historical examples dated 1669 and 1671, including a seven-and-a-half-luigini piece from 1995 struck in an ounce of fine silver. The Museo della Zecca presents presses, dies and other minting machinery, including a torchio and a die marked 1869. Palazzo dei Monaci was bought by monks in 1607; its round-arched loggia frames the churchyard. The lower floor contains the room where luigini were struck between 1666 and 1687, with a large oven. A plaque on the ground-floor hall's slate fireplace bears the arms of Cardinal di Vendome and the French lilies, with a farewell line traditionally attributed to the monks around 1729, when the principality passed to the House of Savoy. The palace later served as town hall and school until 1981.

Context and history

The monetary episode begins with a contract: on Christmas Eve 1666, Prince-Abbot Cesare Barcillon engaged Bernardino Bareste of Mougins to run the mint for five years. Coining continued, on and off, until October 1687, although no luigini are known dated after 1671. The operation collapsed in scandal — the coin master Jean D'Abric was accused of counterfeiting after protests from the King of France — and in 1719 the minting tools were sold to the Republic of Genoa. Survivors are extraordinarily scarce: only about twelve historical luigini are recorded, held in collections from the former royal cabinet in Turin to the hotel de ville of Marseille. The modern chapter opened in 1995, when Prince Giorgio I restored the ancient minting right by decree, fixing the luigino's symbolic exchange rate and issuing denominations from centesimi to commemorative silver. The modern symbolic series has included commemorative pieces bearing the effigies of Seborga's rulers.