View source for Security Printing and Minting Organization

{{short description|Iranian mint, subsidiary of the Central Bank of Iran}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Security Printing and Minting Organization
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| former_name = Royal Persian Mint 
| type = [[State-owned enterprise]]
| industry = {{hlist|[[Mint (coin)|Minting]]|[[Security printing]]}}
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| predecessor = 24 provincial mints<ref>{{citation|title=The Monetary History of Iran: From the Safavids to the Qajars
|chapter=The Politics of Money Supply under Modernizing Condition|author=Rudi Matthee, Willem Floor|year=2013|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9780857721723|quote=There were twenty-four known copper striking mints: Astarabad, Yerevan, Hamadan, Herat, Isfahan, Kerman, Maragheh, Nishapur, Qazvin, Shabankareh, Shiraz, Soltaniyeh, Tabriz, Yazd, Isfahan, Kashan, Kazerun, Kerman, Lahijan, Mashhad, Qazvin, Rasht and Tehran.}}</ref>
| founded = {{Start date and age|1877|06|14}}<ref>{{citation|title=The Monetary History of Iran: From the Safavids to the Qajars
|chapter=The Creation of a Modern National Mint|author=Rudi Matthee, Willem Floor|year=2013|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9780857721723|quote=The official, festive inauguration of the Mint took place a year later, on 14 June 1877, when it was officially opened by the shah [Naser al-Din].}}</ref>
| founder = Mohammad-Hasan Aminolzarb<ref>{{Citation|author=A. Enayat|title=AMĪN-AL-ŻARB, ḤĀJJ MOḤAMMAD-ḤASAN|date=15 December 1989|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/amin-e-dar-al-zarb-hajj-mohammad-hasan|volume=I/9|pages=951–953|publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica}}</ref>
| hq_location = 191, [[Pasdaran (district)|Pasdaran Ave.]]
| hq_location_city = [[Tehran]]
| area_served = Iran
| key_people = Amir Shokri (Director)<ref name="Kazimov"/>
| products = {{hlist|[[Bahar Azadi Coin]]|[[Commemorative coins]]|[[Iranian rial|Rial]] circulation coins, banknotes and cash cheques}} 
| production = 800 million banknotes
| production_year = 2015–16<ref name="Kazimov">{{cite news|url=https://en.trend.az/iran/business/2434249.html|title=Iran spends $33M each year to print banknotes|publisher=Trend News Agency|author=Khalid Kazimov|date=17 September 2015}}</ref>
| parent = [[Central Bank of Iran]] (Since {{Start date and age|1962|09|23}})<ref>{{cite act| title =Act of Dissolution of the Royal Mint and mandating its duties to the Central Bank of Iran| number =1343| language =Persian| date =January 12, 1965| article =1| article-type =Article| page =536| url =http://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/95716}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211120111911/https://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/95716 |date=November 20, 2021 }}</ref><br>[[Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance (Iran)|Ministry of Finance]] (1877–1962)
| website = {{URL|spmo.ir}}
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'''Security Printing and Minting Organization''' (SPMO; {{lang-fa|سازمان تولید اسکناس و مسکوک|sāzmān-e towlid-e eskenās va maskuk|lit=Bills and Coins Production Organization}})<ref>{{cite journal|first=Christian|last=Funke|title=Aesthetics and Politics of Redesigning Iranian Banknotes: Arab Wind, the Persian Gulf and the Absence of Nuclear Energy|pages=40–45|journal=International Bank Note Society Journal|volume=55|number=2|year=2016}}</ref> is a [[subsidiary]] of the [[Central Bank of Iran]] responsible for design, production and elimination of banknotes and coinage in [[Iran]] under the exclusive authority.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://financialtribune.com/articles/economy-business-and-markets/25814/no-counterfeit-banknotes-found|title=No Counterfeit Banknotes Found|publisher=Financial Tribune|date=15 September 2015}}</ref>

Founded in 1877 as the sole national [[Mint (facility)|mint]] zarab-khane (''zarrabḵana'') of Iran, it replaced multiple provincial mints.<ref>{{citation|title=The Monetary History of Iran: From the Safavids to the Qajars
|chapter=Tradition and Change in the Use of Money|author=Rudi Matthee, Willem Floor|year=2013|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9780857721723|page=208|quote=Before 1877 each major town had its own mint and the coins produced there could vary 10 per cent or more in weight from the national standard...}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=A History of Modern Iran|chapter=The Islamic Republic|author=Ervand Abrahamian|year=2008|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-82139-1|page=40|quote=The central mint, which replaced the many provincial ones, could now debase the coinage, and thereby provide the government with some extra cash...}}</ref> It was constructed at the place of a former cotton factory in northern Tehran, and used French machinery<ref>{{citation|title=Persia and the Persian Question: Volume One|author=George N. Curzon|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136992063|page=472|quote=These misfortunes delayed for some time the execution of the projected scheme; and it was not till 1877 that the new coinage appeared, a large building on the northern outskirts of Teheran, which had been unsuccessfully tried as a cotton factory, having been converted into the Royal Mint. The establishment, which possesses a German overseer and French dies, and is under control of Amin-es-Sultan, is now the sole mint of Persia.}}</ref> while the original building was built by the Belgians.<ref>{{citation|url=https://archnet.org/publications/5494|title=Workplaces: The Transformation of Places of Production, Industrialization and the Built Environment in the Islamic World|entry=The Evolution of Industrial Architecture in Iran|author=Faryar Javaherian|year=2010|publisher=Istanbul Bilgi University Press|page=82|quote=In addition, the Belgians built a coin mint, or zarrab-khaneh, in Tehran.}}</ref> Senior [[Austrian Mint|Münze Österreich]] official, Franz Pechan von Prägenberg, contributed to technically operate the mint.<ref>{{citation|title=The Monetary History of Iran: From the Safavids to the Qajars
|chapter=Tradition and Change in the Use of Money|author=Rudi Matthee, Willem Floor|year=2013|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9780857721723|page=208|quote=Following a formal request for assistance with the improvement of the mint and lengthy negotiations, Franz Pechan von Prägenberg, a high official of the Austrian mint, and a mechanic named Obonya on 13 November 1874 left Vienna for Tehran, where they arrived on 24 January 1875... Fortunately, Obonya was an able and inventive man, and with the help of three other European mechanics passing through Tehran in 1876 he managed to revive the machinery. As a result, the new mint was able to strike new qrans...}}</ref> In 1931, Germans provided the mint with new machinery.<ref>{{citation|title=German Foreign Policy Towards Iran Before World War II: Political Relations, Economic Influence and the National Bank of Persia|author=Rashid Khatib-Shahidi|year=2013|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9781848853249|page=82|quote=The Persian parliament had approved on 16 February 1931 a loan to the ministry of trade and industry to meet the capital expenditure required for the establishment of a mint. The machinery and required equipment for this new mint had been ordered in Germany. Moreover, in February 1931 two German experts were appointed to run the operations of the mint. }}</ref>

Iranian banknotes were not printed by the organization until 1982;<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/10159/A-Tour-of-CBI-s-Security-Printing|title=A Tour of CBI's Security Printing|publisher=Tehran Times|date=28 April 1998}}</ref> instead they were outsourced abroad to [[Bradbury Wilkinson and Company]], [[Waterlow and Sons]], [[ABCorp (American Banknote Corporation)|American Bank Notes Co]] and [[De La Rue]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Ali Sharghi|title=ESKENĀS|date=15 December 1998|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/eskenas|volume=VIII/6|pages=615–624|publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica}}</ref> [[Koenig & Bauer]] reportedly refused to provide the organization with equipment in 2012.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gladstone|first=Rick|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/world/middleeast/irans-supply-of-currency-may-be-at-risk-in-sanctions.html|title=Iran Sanctions May Cut Supply of Currency|work=The New York Times|date=16 October 2012}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[https://www.cbi.ir/page/15734.aspx Security Printing and Minting Organization]
{{portal bar|Numismatics|Iran}}
[[Category:Banknote printing companies]]
[[Category:Mints (currency)]]
[[Category:Bullion dealers]]
[[Category:1877 establishments in Iran]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1877]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies based in Tehran]]
{{Central Bank of Iran}}
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