Sydney Mint

The Australian Sydney Mint ( Mint Sydney ) is the oldest building in downtown Sydney in the Australian state of New South Wales. The building was built in the period 1811 to 1816 as the southern wing of the three-part historic Sydney Hospital, which is also called Rum Hospital. The other two wings of the building were structurally changed considerably over time.

The British colonies of that time influenced not have its own currency; yet in 1854 in the southern part of the building of the Sydney Hospital, the first Mint a British colony - installed - outside of the UK.

The building facade remained largely preserved in its original form of 1816; the building is now a listed building and it houses the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales.

The building is located in Macquarie Street near other historical buildings such as Hyde Park Barracks, Queen Victoria Building and Parliament House of New South Wales.

History

When the governor Lachlan Macquarie saw the conditions in which the time existing tent hospital in Sydney, he decided to build a stationary hospital building, the first public building in Sydney. To finance the entire building, he shot an import monopoly for 45,000 gallons of rum, and later to different sources 60,000 and 65,000 gallons.

The architect is unknown. The south wing was designed in the ancient Greek style two storey with columns of cedar after the Doric order of columns. It is controversial in terms of its architectural significance and design. Part of it is regarded as the construction of the governorship of Macquarie par, while Francis Greenway, the most important architect and British convict that time, the construction design and technical violently criticized. In his opinion, the pillars proportion was not classic and accordingly the construction to be regarded neither as modern nor as historical. He also noted significant structural defects that needed to be improved in 1820 and 1826.

1842 hospital pharmacy was opened in this building as well as the other rooms used as a military hospital until 1854.

The Governor William Denison, an engineer with a strong scientific expression, opened on May 14, 1855 The Mint officially known as the Mint and shortly thereafter took the initiative to create the Philosophical Society of New South Wales, which the building as a center for scientific research, literature art and philosophy in the 1850 and 1860 years used.

From 1855 to 1926 coins of the colony of New South Wales were minted in the building. In 1851 the first Australian gold rush took place, large amounts of gold circulated unchecked, threatened to subvert the official monetary transactions and had to be brought to England for embossing, so the colonial government tried to bring the gold trade under their control.

1926 the Mint in Sydney was closed because the mints effectively worked in Melbourne and Perth.

The backs of the coins that were minted in the British colony of New South Wales, already wore in 1855 the lettering Australia, although the State in Australia, the Commonwealth of Australia, about half a century later, was founded in 1901. In this building the first coins were minted on the Australian continent.

Between 1926 and 1997, more than 20 government agencies and courts were housed in the building, which remained some years; only the Housing Commission stayed longer. The interiors have been changed according to the requirements or reduced in size and used for example as state offices of general insurance, pension insurance, licensing for producing electrical energy and state Family Foundation. After 1997, it was intended to be used as The Mint Court. Then came an initiative that would preserve the historic buildings in Sydney and New South Wales. This was successful and the Prime Minister of New South Wales, Neville Wran, announced that The Mint is used in the future by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences as a museum building. 1982 was there the museum of decorative arts, coins and stamps, which was rededicated in the years 1993-1995 in an exhibition on the role of gold and the gold rush of Australia, which was dismantled in 1997. The museum was closed in 1997 and transferred to the Historic Houses Trust in 1998, which uses it to this day as an administrative building.

Parts of the building as a permanent exhibition on the history of the house designed, which can be visited. The building is open to the public and houses a café.