The Real Ingenio of Segovia was an innovative and pioneering mint house. The building was designed to host modern machinery, the so-called “ingenios”, along with the different departments of the industrial process. The new system produced coins in a mechanised and serial way, becoming the precursor of the modern factories of the industrial revolution in more than 200 years. Philip II would attain a faster and more accurate coining system. The Royal Mint of Segovia is regarded as one of the oldest and most important samples of industrial architecture in Europe. Built by King Philip II in 1583, it was the first mechanised Mint in Spain, apart from being the first which belonged to the Crown.

This Renaissance technique consisted in a laminating and coining system by means of “ingenios” moved by hydraulic wheels. This technique was invented in Augsburg in around 1550 and, prior to its implementation in Segovia, it had been already used in several European cities.

The machines or “ingenios” built in Hall (Austria) were brought to Spain in the longest train known up to that moment.

The flywheel press replaced in 1771 the initial coining system, the hydraulic roller. This new procedure was introduced in Spain from France by the new Royal Family, the Bourbons. The design of this avant-garde factory is owed to Juan de Herrera, one of the most influential and important architects in the history of Spain, who carried out the works in collaboration with Austrian engineers. The plant was conceived to cover the complete coining process, from the arrival of the gross metal to the final product, the coin.

The third and last technology which the Royal Mint of Segovia housed was coining via automatic press. This system operated for only three years, since, at the beginning of the year 1869, the last coining in Segovia took place: a commemorative medal to the Republic.