FGU Goznak

Company type	Unitary enterprise
Industry	currency printing
Founded	1808
Headquarters	17 Mytnaya St. Moscow , Russia
Products	currency, postal stamps, medals, badges
Revenue	38,799,700,000 Russian ruble (2017)
Owner	Russian government (100%)
Parent	Ministry of Finance
Website	www.goznak.ru

Goznak (Russian: Федеральное государственное унитарное предприятие Гознак, short for Государственный знак, or State Insignia) is a Unitary enterprise in Russia, responsible for the production of coins and bank notes. Goznak was established on July 6, 1919, under the conditions of civil war, as an agency that administered the whole process cycle of bank note manufacturing.^[1] It incorporated several factories involved in different stages of the production cycle. Although the initial scope of Goznak had been the production of bank notes, the production of coins was added to its field of operations in 1941. Production of orders of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation was also administered by Goznak.

Goznak used to combine paper and printing facilities, which manufactured money, government bonds, checks, letters of credit, savings-bank books (сберегательная книжка), lottery tickets, postage stamps, blanks of passports, birth certificates, marriage licenses, as well as publications of high artistic value, special and high-grade paper. Goznak also controls mints, which manufacture small change, orders, decorations, and commemorative medals. It also manufactures credit cards, banking cards, phone cards, and SIM chips. Goznak not only prints Russian money, but also prints banknotes of foreign countries, including Indonesia and Egypt. The longest-sitting chairman of Goznak is Ivan Dubasov.

History

During the reign of Peter the Great, the Russians established the Saint Petersburg Mint in 1724, which would centralize coinage in Russia and begin to produce different kinds of badges and medals used for decoration.

In 1815, after the currency crisis caused by the French invasion of Russia (1812), the government established the so-called Department of State Currency Production (Экспедиция заготовления государственных бумаг) under the authority of the Ministry of Finance; Dmitry Guriev, Minister of Finance, assigned engineer Agustín de Betancourt to design and build the modern, steam-powered currency printshop which was completed in 1818.

In 1838, a Russian academician Moritz von Jacobi (known as Boris Yakobi in Russia), employed at this Department, used his invention of galvanoplastics to produce printing plates for the first time in printing history. In the 1890s, an employee of the Department Ivan Orlov invented and developed a new printing method, which would be called the "Orlov Stamp" (Орловская печать). Also, he built multicolor printing presses, which would serve as a prototype for modern multicolor printing presses. Orlov's machines were still in use in some countries in the 1970s.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Department of State Currency Production was reorganized and renamed Goznak (short for Государственный знак, literally State Ensign or Insignia). Although the initial scope of Goznak had been the production of bank notes, the production of coins was added to its field of operation in 1941, when the Leningrad mint was taken over by Goznak.^[2] Goznak had its own All-union Research Institute in Moscow. In the 1920s, a Goznak employee and a prominent Soviet sculptor Ivan Shadr created the first samples of the Soviet money. In the 1950s – 1960s, an employee of the Goznak’s Moscow Printing Factory V.A.Oleynik invented an original money counting device, which would be further developed by other workers of the All-union Research Institute. Thus, all of the paper and printing factories and mints of the Goznak were equipped with the counting machines.

Decree of the President of Russia "On associations of state enterprises and organizations producing state signs" of 21 December 1993 declared that the association "Goznak" retains a special control system, is a legal entity with the right to conduct economic and foreign trade. The association "Goznak" Presidential Decree include:

• Moscow mint
• Perm printing shop
• Saint Petersburg Paper Mill
• Saint Petersburg Mint
• Moscow printing shop
• Research Institute of Goznak (Moscow)
• Krasnokamsk paper mill
• Moscow typography

Order of the Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation on 23 March 1995 number 199 back its historical name of the Leningrad Mint Goznaka. Since then, he again called - Saint Petersburg Mint (SPMD). Brand "LMD" was replaced with "SPMD" in 1997. Leningrad Goznaka paper mill in 1995 again called St. Petersburg paper mill Goznaka (IOM).

In 1997, Perm Printing Factory launched telecards for public telephones. During the first year of the new site is made more than one million cards. The quality of cards is fully in line with the international standard.

In 1999, the Moscow Mint, for the first time in the history of Russia won the tender for the manufacture of currency for India. In October 1999, with India signed an agreement for the manufacture of copper-nickel coins two and five rupees.

ePassport

At the beginning of 2006, the Moscow Printing Factory of Goznak (MPF Goznak) started with the personalization of the first ePassports. The current ePassport - often described as a biometric passport - does not contain any biometric data yet. Since the production capacities were low, the ePassport was only issued for certain regions of Russia. Starting in 2008, MPF Goznak increased its production capacity significantly. The ultimate goal was an output of more than 5 million ePassports per year. The personalization equipment for the Russian ePassport is provided by the German company Mühlbauer AG. Between January 2008 and September 2008, over 800 thousand ePassports were issued.

190th Anniversary

On September 3, 2008, Goznak celebrated the 190th anniversary of its currency printing shop. This 2008 anniversary also coincided with the issuance of the one-millionth Russian ePassport.