250 Years of the National Printing Office

The coin's commemorative subject rendered as an eight-line text set in the manner of movable type in a historic press: "1768 – 2018, IMPRENSA, NACIONAL, DUZENTOS E, CINQUENTA, 250 ANOS, PORTUGAL, MMXVIII". Below: the designer's name and mintmark.

The Imprensa Nacional is far more to Portugal than a state printing operation: since its founding in 1768 under the Marquis of Pombal, it has shaped the official communication of the Portuguese state - from laws and decrees to official gazettes, banknotes and passports. At a time when access to printed texts still translated directly into political power, Pombal created, with this institution, a central infrastructure for the modernisation and centralisation of the Portuguese administrative apparatus. The printing house thus became a tool of enlightened absolutism, which fundamentally reshaped Portugal in the second half of the 18th century.

Over more than two and a half centuries, the Imprensa Nacional - today known as Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, after merging with the state mint in 1972 - has developed into one of Portugal's most significant producers of security printing products. Alongside documents and printed matter, the company also produces coins and stamps, uniting two traditional areas of state production under one roof. Portugal marked the 250th anniversary of its founding in 2018 with a 2-euro commemorative coin honouring this institutional continuity.