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The Museum of the Zecca di Roma has its roots in the Pontifical Mint of the Capital at the end of the eighteenth century. Founded in 1824 as the Papal Cabinet of Medals and acquired by the Government of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, it was officially established in 1958 by the Italian Republic. In 1978, the year in which the State Coin Office passed to the then Istituto Poligrafico, its rare and valuable numismatic collections became part of the patrimony of the current Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, together with an extraordinary array of period machinery, some of which is still in working order.

The collection of the Zecca Museum, of exceptional historical and artistic interest, includes over 20. 000 works including coins, medals, minting objects and wax models: the coins, with a rich collection of issues of Italian and foreign States from the Middle Ages to the present day, also including proofs and designs; the collection of medals by the most illustrious and authoritative artists of all times; the nucleus that includes coinage and punches from the papal collection and part of those used for devotional medals; and the great added value represented by a collection of wax models for medals and cameos, whose largest group (425 waxes) is represented by the works of Benedetto Pistrucci. The great fame of this Roman engraver is due above all to one of his most celebrated works, the golden pound, of which the Museum exhibits studies and original models.