Numismatic Museum in Marciana - Island of Elba

Palazzo Appiani the Appiani family had it built towards the end of the 1500s, the time when the Princes of Piombino used the town of Marciana as their summer residence.

On the ground floor of the building you have the numismatic museum of Marciana Marina, also known as the Mint, that came to be as a way of documenting and illustrating how the coins on the territory of Elba were used and how their use developed.

Built entirely in granite, the museum consists of a rectangular hall that you reach via a long, narrow corridor that then leads on to a smaller hall and that then takes you to two square rooms.

On the upper part of the walls at the entrance you can still see some carbon drawings of sailing ships and fishing boats with triangular sails.

In the Numismatic Museum in Marciana there are collections of different coins minted in the Principality of Piombino between the XVI and the XVII centuries, of which you can see 2 "grossi", 1 "soldo". 8 "quattrini" and 2 "crazie".

You can also see a remake of the various stages of coin minting and there is also an anvil and the mint marks on show.

On the walls a detailed historical explanation along with a documentary completes a visit that takes place in a fascinating and truly suggestive setting.

In order to document how the use of coins developed on the Island of Elba in the best possible way there is also a sample book of coins dating back to the XIII-XVI centuries that were found in different areas in Elba and that were in use before the coins that Jacopo VII Appiani and Niccolò and Giovan Battista Ludovisi minted.

In 2016 the Museum further enriched its collection with the addition of another group of coins, now on show, that are thought to date back between the XI and XV centuries. These coins, widely used especially in retail trade, are both in pure or mixed silver, and represent the coins in use during the Middle Ages.