Kremnica is a town located in the district of Žiar nad Hronom. Gold and silver have been mined in the city and its surroundings since the 10th century. Kremnica has been a free royal mining town since 1328 and has been nicknamed “Golden Kremnica” since the 14th century. Kremnica Mint is located in the city, which is the only existing mint in the world to this day. A significant trace of human activity in the immediate surrounding is represented by the oldest mining adits and shafts, the origin of which experts place in the 8th to 9th century. The valley of Kremnica stream was colonized by Slovak and German populations for mining and agriculture already before the 14th century. The establishment of the free royal city of Kremnica is connected with the date of November 17, 1328, when the Hungarian king Karol Róbert of Anjou issued a privileged charter to the settlement. The impetus for the legal elevation of the settlement was economic and monetary reforms - mainly the introduction of landowner mining freedom, i.e. the abolition of the sovereign's monopoly right to mine precious metals, the development of the private business of miners, the establishment of a royal mint in the immediate surrounding of mines and smelters. The mint began minting new valuable currency - silver pennies and denarii, but also gold florins and ducats. From the middle of the 19th century the production of precious metals tumbled, in Kremnica the gold content of 1-3 g per ton of material was already at the limit of profitability. After the Second World War, Kremnica produced 85 kg of gold per year. Underground mining of gold and silver ores at the deposit was finished in 1970.
