The Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre — Real Casa de la Moneda is the Spanish state manufacturer of coins, stamps, identity documents and, for most of the twentieth century, banknotes. It printed the Spanish share of the first euro series under the letter M.
| Country | Spain |
|---|---|
| Printing site | Madrid |
| First-series printer letter | M |
| Europa-series printer letter | — |
| Europa-series control number | — |
| Status | First series only — replaced by IMBISA for the Europa series |
The Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre — Real Casa de la Moneda in Madrid.
Coins, stamps and paper money in one house
The FNMT was formed in 1893 by merging the royal mint with the state stamp works, and its Madrid complex has produced peseta notes, passports and official securities ever since. When euro production began in 1999 the Spanish allocation was printed there.
Handing over to IMBISA
European rules on how euro banknote production is organised led Banco de España to concentrate printing in a dedicated company. IMBISA — Imprenta de Billetes, S.A. — was incorporated in November 2015 with the central bank as majority shareholder and the FNMT holding a minority stake that ran until the end of 2017. From then on the Europa-series letter for Spain is V, belonging to IMBISA, and the FNMT letter M closed with the first series.
The mint continues its other activities and remains one of the largest state security manufacturers in Europe.
Reading the code on a note
Only first-series notes carry the FNMT letter. A production code opening with M on a first-series banknote points to Madrid; the same letter in the Europa series belongs to Valora in Portugal, which is one of the sharpest traps in the whole code. The reassignment is set out in printing offices and printer codes.
