It is an administration of the French government charged with issuing coins as well as producing medals and other similar items, originally created in 864. The Hôtel des Monnaies has housed the mint ever since its construction. Antoine's scheme placed the administration block along the river front and removed the high-security foundry and workshops to interior courtyards fitted within the irregular site of the old Hôtel de Conti. The low side elevation along the Rue Guénégard to the east has robust rustication and a defensive character associated with coinage at least since Jacopo Sansovino's Venetian mint 200 years earlier; the palatial elevation facing across the Seine to the Louvre was meant to convey the idea of national prosperity.