The Casa Real de la Moneda museum and an old coin stamping machine, the Mint House in Potosi, Bolivia

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Potosi in Bolivia is the highest city in the world at 4100 metres above sea level. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was built by the Spanish in the seventeenth century when it was found that the Cerro Rico( the Rich mountain) which towers above the city was the world's richest source of silver. The Cerro Rico is still mined by some 7000 miners of which 1000 are children in a number of small co-operatives. The silver is exhausted but tin, lead and other less valuable metals are found. The Casa Real de la Moneda, the Mint House, was built between 1759 and 1773 and is one of the best examples of Spanish colonial architecture in Latin America. It contains a large museum.

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Size: 3600px × 5400px
Photo credit: © Ian Nellist / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: america, architecture, bolivia, casa, century, coin, coinage, colonial, de, eighteenth, house, la, latin, machinery, mill, mint, moneda, money, potosi, press, real, rolling, silver, south, spanish