Monnaie de Paris is France's official Mint, producing coins and medals since 864, and the world's oldest continuously operating minting institution. The creation by the company of the Établissement monétaire de Pessac in Gironde in 1973 was intended to relieve the Parisian workshops – refocussed on medals, objets d’art and collector currencies - offering to circulation coinage a modern production plant with an international outlook, taking care of numerous foreign central banks as its clients.