Museo della Zecca di Lucca

The Museum of the Ancient Mint of Lucca traces the city's coinage through more than a millennium of monetary history. Its collections include coins, medals, minting tools and the archive of medallist Luigi Giorgi, displayed within the city's Renaissance walls.

Why it matters

Lucca's mint operated from the Lombard era until 1843, when the city's independent coinage ended. Coins bearing the Volto Santo linked the sacred image with the civic identity of the state. The museum also preserves the craft behind currency through tools, designs and medals.

What to notice

Coin scales and weights show how money was assessed and regulated. The Fondo Artistico Luigi Giorgi contains about 450 items, including medals, wax and plaster models, moulds, drawings and photographs. The collection reveals how a design could progress from a model to a struck object. The museum also holds a specialist library and archive.

Context and history

Lucca's coinage continued through the Lombard period, the commune and republic, the Napoleonic principality of Elisa Baciocchi and the restored duchy, ending under Carlo Lodovico di Borbone in 1843. The modern Antica Zecca project was founded by Giuliano Marchetti in the 1990s, first operating a museum on Via Sant'Andrea. The collection is now housed in the Casermetta San Donato on the walls, where historic coin designs are again struck as reproductions.