In 1551, under Henri II, France attempted to transform the manufacture of money. For more than two thousand years, coins had been struck by placing a metal blank between engraved dies and hitting it with a hammer. The Moulin des Étuves in Paris introduced a mechanical alternative that promised greater regularity and precision. Authorised on 27 March 1551, the workshop stood on the Île de la Cité, separate from the traditional Paris Mint: the hammer and the press would operate side by side.

The technology originated in Augsburg and was brought to France by Aubin Olivier. A water-powered rolling mill reduced precious metal to sheets of controlled thickness; mechanical cutters produced regular blanks; and a screw press, or balancier, struck the designs. Olivier is also credited with developing the virole brisée, a split collar that helped control the blank during striking. Together, these techniques offered more consistent weights, sharper impressions and rounder coins. A regular circumference also made clipping—the removal of precious metal from a coin’s edge—easier to detect.

From 1552, the Moulin produced Henri II’s silver testons, followed by demi-testons. Early issues showed the king’s laureate head; later pieces displayed a laureate and cuirassed bust. The workshop was also associated with prestigious gold pieces, including the double Henri d’or à la Gallia. Surviving coins reveal the promise of the method, although imperfections remained. Crucially, the silver issues were circulating money, not merely medals or demonstrations: mechanical striking had acquired a practical monetary purpose.

The enterprise brought together royal patronage, engineering and engraving. Henri II provided authority, Olivier developed the machinery, and Marc Béchot, the king’s chief coin engraver, contributed tools and designs. Étienne Bergeron became master of the Moulin in 1553 after working with comparable equipment at Troyes. Approximately 5,000 mechanically struck testons were produced there in 1552 and more than 4,500 in 1553. For a brief period, Paris and Troyes were both testing the possibilities of mechanised coin production.

Technical achievement did not ensure acceptance. Traditional moneyers resisted a system that threatened their privileges and livelihoods, while the machinery required maintenance, adjustment and specialist operators. Producing an excellent coin was not the same as establishing a durable, economical production system. Religious divisions compounded these difficulties: Bergeron, a Protestant, relinquished his position and later carried his expertise elsewhere, including Pau. The obstacles were institutional, practical and political, not simply technical.

By the early 1560s, the initial drive to transform French coin manufacture had lost momentum. Yet the Moulin and its technology did not disappear altogether: later piéforts and copper coins attest to continuing activity. What failed was the ambition to replace hammer striking on a broad scale. Despite the mechanical alternative’s demonstrated advantages, the traditional method remained dominant.

The decisive change came under Jean Warin, during the seventeenth-century reforms of Louis XIII. From 1640, Warin’s coinage combined mechanical consistency with accomplished royal portraiture. This time, the crown extended reform across the minting system rather than confining it to a separate workshop. In March 1645, the authorities ordered the balancier throughout the royal mints. Provincial workshops were progressively converted, and by 1649 hammer striking had effectively been replaced.

The Moulin des Étuves was not the birthplace of the machinery itself, but one of the formative centres of mechanically struck circulating coinage. Its history shows that innovation required more than a successful machine: expertise, organisation and political authority also had to align. The press proved its promise under Henri II; almost a century later, France finally reorganised its mints around it.

The next time you reach into your pocket and find a perfectly round coin, spare a thought for Aubin Olivier and his ambitious project at the Moulin des Étuves.

Geneva Collections is proud to offer coins that form part of this remarkable history. On our platform, you will find coins predating the Moulin des Étuves(1,2); testons struck at the Moulin itself(3,4,5) later examples of hammered coinage(6,7), magnificent pieces bearing the designs of Jean Warin(8,9) and many more.

1.https://genevacollections.ch/en/listing/69cbe170d452f9c02c6985ca

2.https://genevacollections.ch/en/listing/658073d3c450c13140ee3085

3.https://genevacollections.ch/en/listing/669fbe575044f567b7c7a861

4.https://genevacollections.ch/en/listing/6aa0231f6b8f72c00c602b40

5.https://genevacollections.ch/en/listing/6aa7c6656b8f72c00c7758c7

6.https://genevacollections.ch/en/listing/660ec08c0d5c6a054dd18077

7.https://genevacollections.ch/en/listing/658076acc450c13140ee3319

8.https://genevacollections.ch/en/listing/6a7c91466b8f72c00cf7e5b2

9.https://genevacollections.ch/en/listing/64ba7f8690343722daa4df8a

Aubin Olivier, représenté par Léonard Gaultier (reprint de 1622), BnF

Estampe sur papier. Diderot, D’Alembert, L’Encyclopédie. [42], Monnayage, travail de l’or, Paris : Briasson, 1751-1780, pl. XV. Jacques Raymond Lucotte (v. 1733-1804), dessinateur ; Robert Bénard (né en 1734), graveur.