casa nacional de la moneda

martnlivy

Originally an historic mint, from 1930 this building has operated as a museum, one of the most important in Bolivia. It also keeps one of the largest art collections in Potosi, particularly of colonial paintings, and has many historical archives. The displays of equipment used to create the historic coins are fascinating, especially machines and techniques developed by Leonard de Vinci. The tour guide helped to make our visit especially interesting.

Vaabp

This place was my favorite part of Potosi. I really enjoyed the tour and seeing all the exhibitions of the museum.This was great to learn more about Bolivia and it's history. This is a place you must visit while visiting Potosi.

206philipd

Not sure of the relevance of all the religious paintings but it was a fascinating tour. You take pot luck with the quality of the tour guides and which language the tour is in - Spanish, French, English at random times of the day.

sironside

Wasn't my favorite part of my trip, but I guess I'm not as into historical stuff like that. It was all right, and one of two things to do in Potosi (the other being a mine tour). Worth seeing if you're there, I guess!

741mathiasa

Only the building itself if very nice to walk around in. Three different kind s of stone in the wall, a beautifull wooden floor, amassing ceilings. The content is also very interesting, the machines used to make coins. The parts with paintings and silver things is less but that might be just me. Worth the money!

myrthet

I really liked the Moneda in Potosi. You can only get in by a guided tour and I really think it was worth it! You learn a lot about the history of Potosi, the mountain, silver, history of all money&coins and slavery. I get bored at museums quickly, but this one defenitely not! I can recommend it to anybody of any age! Tours also in English.

975lynnj

Located in the central district and offering an English speaking tour, this is an interesting way to spend a couple of hours.

SarahAR19

Having asked a number of fellow travellers about their experiences in Potosi, we chose to take the guided tour of the Mint rather than go down the mines. Think it was a good call, (for me at least). The museum is a cut above most that we visited in South America, the presentation is excellent and the guided tour full of interesting detail about the history of Potosi. Only regret was that by the time we finished the tour, the ticket office at the entrance had closed, so I wasn't able to buy the small book about the museum.

TLauchenauer

We went there with kids ranging from 4-11 and where the older ones enjoyed it, the tour was too long for our youngest and one of the rooms with paintings was definitely not for children (very graphic violent at by a famous local artist that are interesting for adults but not for kids).For adults the tour is very interesting and gives insights into the history of Potosi.

JorisD254

I thought this was a very interesting tour. Our guide was, besides very stilish, very enthousiastic and proud to tell us the story of Potosi; really made my day. The exhibition gives a good insight in the history of Potosi and their role in silver worldwide.Note: tours only depart at fixed times. we had a english tour at 3.30pm; not sure about the other departures.

MartinYAury

First of all I think its ridiculous to start out discriminating the price according to wether you're Bolivian or foreigner ( foreigners pay 4 times more) and to add to that if you want to take pictures you have to pay more. This later is followed by an ambience were theres guys controling whis taking pictures. We asked for a Spanish Tour and started with around 20 people, after 5 minutes another 20 peolpe were added. It was Way too many people for a guide that spoke with a very closed accent and was hard to hear ( i clarify that spanish is our native language) Add to that the 40 people walking on beautiful but squeeky floors. Its a long tour and with all this we were praying for the end to come

acumom

The moneda is an interesting place full of history but we had a guide that did not speak English very well.We had great experiences in Bolivia so it was a surprise that a place so popular would have someone who wasn't fluent and able to answer questions.

981gracep

This is one of those places where you really benefit from the guided tour in order to truly learn and understand the history of this place. My tour guide was great, he was pretty knowledgeable and so proud to teach us about his history. They have some incredible original machines dating from the 1600's. Something to see.

Gregg-Brussels

Unique visit to understand Potosi history and how important the place was for Spanish royalty. Some impressive pieces ( e.g. Machines covering the whole silver coin fabrication, where you notice the Spanish had invented the car differential around 1600) and very instructive (without the comments most of the pieces would not make sense).Don't be afraid of the mandatory guided tour. It's 90 minutes but you don't see the time pass. Our French-speaking guide was very good.If you visit in the winter, make sure to dress warmly, it's pretty cold in there

418chrisj

As some other reviewers have mentioned, I was a bit put off by the obligatory guided tour. Nevertheless, it is definitely worth it! The tour guide was VERY informative and without her my experience would have been a bit disappointing. That said, I did the tour in Spanish so I don't know what its quality is in English. Highlights were learning about the PTSI, SI ($) and in the gift shop you can pay to make your own coin in the colonial way for 25 Bolivianos - a fee I thought I couldn't say no to. Enjoy! It's well worth a visit!