August 2025 - South Suburban Coin Club - Overview of Mexican Coinage

Fred Barnard gave a very interesting talk on Coinage of Mexico.  It was timely for me as I have been going through some of my Dad's world coins.  What seems like a gallimaufry is slowly starting to make sense as a collection.

Fred traveled to Mexico frequently and even lived in Guadalajara for a period of time.  Personally, I could not pick out any of the Mexican states or major cities where mints were located.

Mexican Coinage can be broken up into the following periods:

Spanish Colonial 1536-1821

Revolutionary 1810-1822

Iturbide Empire 1822-1823

Republic 1823-1869

Maximillian Empire 1864-1867

Republic Decimal 1870-1905 (also referred to as 2nd Republic)

Stable Reform Coinage 1905...1949 (devalued peso)

Revolutionary Issues 1913-1917 (bloody civil war)

Modern Coinage 1945-today

Mexican was a huge silver producer during the colonial period and is still the world's leading silver producer.  The Mexican "dollar" was the USD of its day in that it served as the world's currency.

It was one of the early converts to decimal coinage.  The first being Russia.  The United States was an early convert as well.  England was one of the last to decimalize in 1969.

There were (13) branch mints in addition to Mexico City.  They were authorized to allow mintage closer to the mines.

Purity (devaluation)

1700s-1914 0.786 troy oz = $1.00

1918-1919 0.466 troy oz

1920-1945 0.386 troy oz = $0.50

1947-1949 0.225 troy oz

1957-1967 0.051 troy oz

Morgan Dollar = 0.773 troy oz

Mexican Gold Coins were discussed.  The Mexico Gold 50 Pesos (Centnario) is still a popular way to buy bullion.  1.2057 oz of gold.

Collecting strategies:

Type Set is very difficult (even a post 1821 set is difficult)

Chuck Mattson has 441 Mexico Revolutionary Coins

Post 1905 type set is doable

Set of revolutionary coins would be a lengthy challenge