Goznak

Joint Stock Company "Goznak"/"Гознак" (short for Государственный знак, or State Insignia) is a Russian joint-stock company responsible for research and development as well as manufacturing security products including banknotes, coins, stamps, identity cards, secure documents, state orders and medals, as well as providing secure services. It incorporates seven factories and one research and development institute involved in different stages of the development, research, and manufacturing cycle. Goznak combines paper and printing facilities which manufacture banknotes, 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 and special and high-grade paper. Goznak also controls mints, which manufacture circulation coins, orders, decorations, and commemorative medals. It also manufactures credit cards, banking cards, phone cards. Goznak not only prints Russian money, but also prints banknotes of foreign countries, including Lebanon, Yemen, Guatemala, Rwanda, Angola and others. 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.