Description

The Darphane-i Amire (Imperial Mint) is located in the large First Courtyard of the Imperial Palace. Com and official seals of the Republic of Turkey were minted here until 1967, and the Official Stamp Printing office is still housed here.

The Darphane-i Amire, whose essential function was minting coins and providing silver, gold, and cop­ per to do this, gained importance with the closing of the provincial mints toward the second half of the 17th century, and became promi­ nent in the Ottoman financial organisation as of the second half the 18th century, starting to become effective in the manage­ ment of public revenues and expenditures just like the state treasury, and taking over new responsibilities and authority for the provision of war expenditures. It has been determined that at this stage new resources were intro­ duced, management of some rev­ enues was turned over to the Mint and that it became the most important financial body of the state in the early 19th century. The Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives and the Topkapi Palace Museum Archives contain numerous docu­ ments and records on this period.

In March 1995 the buildings were allocated to the History Foundation for a period of 49 years, first to be utilized as the venue for the Habitat exhibitions and afterwards to be restored and converted into the istanbu! Museum.

The History Foundation's two major exhibitions were opened in honour of the United Nations June Conference on Housing and Settlement (Habitat II): "Istanbul - World City" and "Housing and Settlement in Anatolia". The Mint's proximity to several Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman landmarks make it greatly accessible. More importantly, the experience and the reception given by the city's inhab­ itants and the Habitat II visitors pro­ vided the History Foundation with the opportunity to introduce the Istanbul Museum to a wider audi­ ence.

Meeting facilities

The historic mint buildings have 5 indoor rooms and 3 outdoor spaces available for meetings, with a total area of 17,000 sqm, and other ancillary spaces for reception, cloak­ room, various preparations, kitchen and service purposes. Equipment includes a slide and video projector, overhead projector, screen, sound system, TV-video, and lighting sys­ tem. Security services are provided by the foundation. If desired, out­ side catering services are permitted.

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