The Oaxaca mint

by Pablo Luna Herrera{footnote}based on his website (in Spanish) eldatonumismatico{/footnote}

Several decades had to pass for the successful opening of the Oaxacan mint. In July 1842, President Antonio López de Santa Anna authorized its opening in the Department of Oaxaca (to citizen José Joaquín Guergue), likewise, in September 1847, President Ignacio Comonfort authorized its operation^{[text needed]}. However, the multiple armed conflicts and political turmoil of the time, added to the lack of funds, prevented the start of activities.

At first it was argued that it was not possible to open it due to the geographical location surrounded by mountains, the fact that mining production was insignificant until 1850, and the Mexico City Mint had the benefit of exclusivity to manufacture currency within 750 kilometres (Oaxaca is located 450 km from the capital).

The establishment of a mint at Oaxaca was thanks in a large part to the efforts of the influential governor of the state and future president of Mexico, Benito Juárez. lt was Juarez's petition to the Minister of Hacienda on 7 June 1856 that finally led to permission to establish the mint. Lerdo de Tejada, informed the lessees of the Mexico City mint (Bellange and Temple) that "the government reserves the liberty of establishing as it deems appropriate a mint in Oaxaca for the minting of precious metals that are exploited within the same State.”

The contract^{[text needed]} was signed on 11 August 1857. On 25 March 1858 the local Congress authorized its opening, ordering the coining of 100,000 pesos in silver. In Mexico City, General Félix Zuloaga protested its operation, urging its immediate closure, and on 6 May 1858 he mentioned that the coins produced were of poor quality and design. The decree would not be repealed until 15 April 1864, by the Second Empire.

In the opening decree it was foreseen that the Mexico City Mint would provide the new mint with the matrices for making dies, but it is evident from the early crude coinage that this did not happen. By 1861 newspapers in Veracruz were  accusing the Oaxacan currency of lacking the stipulated fineness (ley). This may have been the reason that a second mint was opened in Oaxaca in 1861 with coins made in two facilities with different machinery.

The Governor of the state, defending the issues, presented a report (also signed by the assayer Francisco de la Rosa) to the Local Congress on 16 September 1861 in which he showed the benefits in weight and design of the currency of Oaxaca.

KM-383.10. Oaxaca 8 escudos 1861 O-FR (Stack’s Bowers auction, 6 August 2020, lot 21475) 

The Imperial forces of Maximilian occupied the mint from 8 February 1865 to 12 September 1866. There is an interesting statement by the Imperial Treasurer, Sr. Villalba, that during the occupation gold and silver were minted in Oaxaca. Since there are no Maximilian issues known from Oaxaca, it is probable that if this is true the coins were made from dies already on hand, probably dated 1864. It is unlikely, however, that the 1865 issue is from this referenced coinage. Minting of 8 Reales resumed after the occupation in 1867 and continued until 1869 when it was abandoned in favor of the Balance Scale Peso. When the new peso proved unpopular, 8 Reales coinage resumed in 1873 and continued until the mint closed in 1893.

The only mint in the republic that was not leased between 1876 and 1879 was the one in Oaxaca. The reason for this singular case is actually very simple: the Oaxacan mint was operating some years with subsidies from the federal government and others with negligible profits; in short, it was not a business despite the heavy investments it had made in machinery and facilities since 1877. Proof of this can be found in the Memoria de Fomento for the fiscal year 1883-1884, where it is reported that the government of the nation had given the Oaxaca mint an annual subsidy of six thousand pesos. In the same vein, the Oaxaca mint operated with a percentage of expenses five times higher than the average of the other mints{footnote}Juan Fernando Matamala, [                  ] {/footnote}.

The first ten years of issues are quite irregular in terms of the varieties of design, as the dies were of local manufacture. Uniformity with the Mexico City mint would not happen until the end of the Maximilian Empire when the engraver Sebastian Navalon joined the mint (some authors mention in 1881) and sent the official designs that lasted until the closure of the mint in 1893. In 1877 new machinery was installed.

A comparative study of the varieties documented and reported on the 8 reales coins of this mint indicates that there are a total of 103 types from 1858 to 1893{footnote}Garza, [                             ], 2021{/footnote}. This article cover the early dies.

In later years the Oaxaca mint proved to be the least efficient of the Mexican mints. The cost of minting coins was 10%, or five times that of other mints. With the inauguration of the railroad to Mexico City on 8 December 1892 there was no longer the need for a mint at Oaxaca, since secure transportation for bullion and coinage was now available. Secretary Romero himself, referring to the case of the Oaxaca mint, said in 1892 that once the railroad line to Mexico City was completed, it would be easy and cheap to transport the precious metals to the capital to be minted in the Mexico City Mint, which would allow the closure of the Oaxaca Mint without causing damage to the miners of the state. In addition, it represents a saving for the public treasury by eliminating the operating expenses of the Oaxacan establishment, actions that could be repeated in some of the other mints in the country. The Oaxaca mint ceased operation and was closed on 31 July 1893.

Mínt owners or lessees and their tenures

Assayers and their tenures (as evidence by coinage)

Mintage

Pradeau{footnote}{/footnote} stated that the Oaxaca Mint minted 5,795,145.95 pesos, of which 763,342 pesos was in gold coin, 5,031,457 in silver coin and finally 346,95 is copper coin.

The amount in thousands of pesos is partially broken down by year:

Reales issues of the Oaxaca mint

Silver

Four reales

Diameter 32 mm. 13.540 g, 0.90277 silver

Usually the edge design of the four reales is referred to as ornamental, but there are two exceptions, with this Oaxaca mint.

KM-375.5 4r 1861 O FR oblique edge reeding (Stack’s-Bowers auction, 26 August 2022, lot 34179)

Variety with oblique edge reeding.

KM-375.7 4r 1861 O FR herringbone edge. (Stack’s-Bowers Kirk Menczer Collection,24 June 2026, lot 73262)

Variety with herringbone edge.

KM-375.7 4r 1861 O FR normal edge (Ponterio Baltimore auction, 28 March 2011, lot 8389)

Normal edge.

Eight reales

KM-377.11 8r 1858 Oa AE

Diameter 39 mm. 27.070 g, 0.90277 silver

KM-377.11 8r 1859 O AE (Stack’s-Bowers auction, 23 October 2025, lot 73052)

Eagle of 1858-59, featuring the cruder, larger eagle design. A die crack characteristic of the 1859 design runs through the obverse design, while the planchet exhibits the overall crudeness expected for the date.

KM-377.11 8r 1860 O AE (Stack’s-Bowers auction, 17 August 2014, lot 44198}

Eagle of 1859-1860

KM-377.11 8r 1864 O FR (Stack’s-Bowers Macau auction, December 2014, lot 30103)

Gold

Four escudos

diameter 30 mm. 13.540 g. 0.8750 gold 

Eight escudos 

KM-383.10 8E 1861 O FR (Stack’s Bowers auction, 6 August 2020, lot 21475)

Diameter 37 mm. 27.070 g. 0.8750 gold 

Early Die Lineage of the First Oaxaca Mint

By Kent Ponterio

The early 8 Reales of the first Oaxaca mint reflect a wide variety of interesting die varieties, each drastically different from one another in quality of workmanship and artistic expression. Within the span of a few years, styles range from quite detailed and well-executed to what could be described as among the poorest quality in the entire Cap & Ray series. It is fairly evident from the coins themselves that the Oaxaca mint encountered numerous problems in its early years of production including flatness of strike and improperly annealed dies that wore out or broke prematurely. Clearly, the mint was operating at a technologically level inferior to that of other Mexican mints.

One of the most interesting features of these early coins is that they permit us to correlate the coins to each other and thus trace the die lineage. Several of this period’s early die styles were produced in very small quantities and in some cases, only one set of dies were made. This permits us to link one style to the next in a conclusive manner. For example, the reverse die of the 1858-0 (fig. 2) is the same as that for the 1859-Oa (fig. 3).

However, the obverse die style of the 1859-Oa is unique to this year (figs. 3-4). Coins from this die often have large vertical die crack, sometimes spanning the entire length of the die, confirming that this die style was only used in 1859. Obviously, the die broke and became so damaged that is could no longer be used, leading to a new obverse die style the following year. As is evident from the diagonal die crack (starting at about 7 o’clock), the first issue of 1860 (fig. 5) continued using the same reverse die of the 1859. It appears that this die was retired temporarily since the second issue of 1860 (fig. 6) uses a reverse die unique to this year. However, the second reverse die used in 1860 seems to have not lasted very long. As it is clear from the coin pictured in fig. 6, this reverse die had broken to the point where it could no longer be used. Due to its extreme rarity, it is certain that this reverse die broke fairly early after its production.

The coin pictured in fig. 7 represents a previously unpublished muling in which the obverse die style of 1861-1862 is paired with the reverse die of 1859-1860. Apparently, after the reverse die of 1860 broke, the mint reverted to using the reverse die 1859-1860, since that die was still functional. This coin, along with several other examples, was part of a large hoard of Oaxaca mint 8 Reales of this period found in the 1990s.

In terms of the quality of its die workmanship, the coinage of the die style of 1861-1862 can be considered among the crudest in the entire Cap & Ray series. The overall design elements lack artistic refinement, the letters in the legends are placed unevenly and crudely engraved local punches replace worn out or broken punches (e.g., the “EP” of “REPUBLICA”, see figs. 9-12). As with the previous dates in this series, these coins exhibit multiple problems in manufacture, such as flatness of strike, improperly annealed dies, etc. However, unlike the earlier coinage, many different dies were produced in the style of 1861-1862, some examples of this can be seen in figs. 8-12.

In 1863, a reformation took place and remedied many of the problems associated with the coinage issues of the previous two years. Several new die styles were introduced and gradually evolved until the end of 1863, at which point the mint ceased to strike coins until it re-opened in 1867 (see figs. 13-18, for examples).

The Eight Reales Coinage of Oaxaca: 1861-1864

During this brief four-year period, the coinage of Oaxaca provides the numismatist with a wealth of variety, a large measure of confusion and numerous unanswered questions. Collectors and catalogers have long been confused over how to organize the coinage of this period. There are three different mintmarks and two assayers. Some have chosen to organize by date and then note the mintnark variety and assayer for each coin. Others have preferred to list the coins by mintmark and then by date and assayer under each mintmark.

For years Dunigan and Parker{footnote}footnote}Mike Dunigan and J. B. Parker, Resplandores: Cap and Rays 8 Reales of the Republic of Mexico 1823-1897, Superior Stamp and Coin company, Beverly Hills CA.,1997{/footnote}{/footnote} wondered how and why any mint could produce coins so drastically different in style, fabric, and quality. Why would they use two mintnarks in some years and three in another?

There were the extremely crude issues of 1861 and 1862 with the a inside O rnintnark and the FR assayer. At the same time there was a nicely styled and much better executed issue that bad the O mintmark also with the FR initials. In 1863 the issue with the O mintmark and the FR initials continued in the same style of the two previous years, but there appeared three different coins with the assayer's initials AE. One was nicely styled and deeply engraved with the a inside O mintmark. Another, which was also nicely styled and bore some similarity to the preceding coin had the unusual mintmark of an a above the O. The two preceding coins are very rare and seldom encountered, but the third coin, which also bears the assayer's initials AE, has only the O mintmark. This last coin is nicely styled with good die workmanship. It is similar to, but better executed than the a above O mintmark issue of the same year.

In trying to organize this in a satisfactory way, Dunigan and Parker kept running into a wall. When they tried to sort by date nothing made sense. When they tried sorting by mintmark the styles did not match up and overlapped. Sorting by assayer was equally fruitless. In short, nothing made any logical sense. Finally, out of frustration, they decided to practice what they preached and listen to the coins. To make a long story short, it became apparent that there were two mints working simultaneously in Oaxaca. Both of these mints were striking coins from 1861 through 1863 and operating under the same assayer in 1861 and 1862. Their equipment would have been very different, accounting for the major differences in quality and style.

The first of these mints produced the crude 1861 and 1862 issues with the a inside O mintmark and later the three 1863 AE issues. Dunigan and Parker consider this the first mint because it is their theory, based on the mintmark (a inside O) and the fact that production seems to have continued uninterrupted, that this is the mint where the previous Oaxaca coinage was struck. They have no explanation for the marked deterioration in style between 1860 and 1861.

The second mint probably opened in the latter part of 1861, based on the relative rarity of the 1861 issue. The mintmark change to O (no a) was undoubtedly to identify the new mint. The mint operated, apparently continuously, from 1861 to 1864 maintaining the same Die Style and most likely using the same punches. All issues from this mint bear the assayer initials FR.