These coins were only known by their description in the work of Manuel Romero de Terreros, Monedas de Necesidad de Michoacán{footnote}{/footnote}. The first one was listed by Romero de Terreros with the number 127 (MRDT 127) in his 1940 work and later referred as ZA. 14 in the annex to Bolrtín 7 of the Sociedad Numismática de México in 1955. No reference to these coins has been made by other authors, including the most important ones on the subject: Mauricio Fernandez, Russel Rulau, Miguel L. Muñoz, Frank W. Grove, Francisco A. Pradeau and Claudio Verrey.
In both Romero de Terreros catalogs the coins appear without images. I knew that the Banco de México had acquired the numismatic collection of Manuel Romero de Terreros, and assuming that the coins described in his books now belonged to the collection of the institution, I made an exhaustive search in it without any luck: the MRDT 127 coin is not part of the collection of the Banco de México.
⅛ ZAMORA AÑO D 18(??) MRDT#127
Fortunately, in January 2015, one of these coins came to my hands and now I would like to share it with the numismatic community.
OBVERSE: The inscription: ZAMORA AÑO D 18 ?? (“D” is shaped as a monogram together with the letter “E”) surrounding a circle within which is located the Mexican national shield.
REVERSE: Inside two concentric circles a monogram with the letters “BNFRD” above a small circle which is generally assumed to be the letter “O”. Below the monogram we can see a capital letter “R” backwards.
Romero de Terreros says the date is 1850. However, the evidence that is going to be presented on the next coin suggests that it rather be 1830, as does the existence of very similar designs during that decade. Other pieces of the same municipality as the MRDT 120 and 121, also listed by Mauricio Fernandez Garza{footnote} Mauricio Fernandez Garza, Moneda Municipal y su Contecto Histórico, 2014{/footnote} are dated 1833. Regarding the monogram on the back, although it is very clear, I cannot conclude on a word or a last name that could be formed with the letters BNFRD. That is why I believe that it is probably an acronym.
The second coin also not shown so far, and not found in the Banco de México collection, was also cataloged by Romero de Terreros. This piece, unlike the former one, does not have the name of the town (Zamora) but Romero de Terreros included it in the book under the section ‘Zamora’ with the following number: MRDT 118 in 1940 and ZA.6 in the 1955 print.
⅛ Zamora 1837 MRDT #118
OBVERSE: Within two concentric circles with ornaments a monogram with the letters “CARD”. Inside the letter “C” reading up from bottom to top the date 1837. Above the monogram is placed a small number “8”.
REVERSE: Within two concentric circles is a monogram with the letters “BNFRD”: above it has a small circle which is generally considered to be the letter “O” (The same reverse as MRDT 127).
Although the second piece is in a very low state of conservation, it is possible to make out that the reverse is exactly the same in both coins.
Romero de Terreros said that he could read on the MRDT 118 coin the letters “FRNADE”. Those letters share “NFRD” with the MRDT 127: that is the reason why I believe that probably the coin that Romero de Terreros had could have deteriorated and so he could not conclude that the reverse was the same on both pieces. He also said that the date is 1839, but the design of the number “7” can be easily confused with a number “1” or a “9”. That does not mean that the 1839 coin does not exist: both dates are possible.
Comparison of monograms in both pieces
In the most damaged coin I have highlighted in green elements to facilitate comparison. I consider this evidence helps us to conclude that the second coin also belongs to Zamora even though the name of the city does not appear on the coin. The reason why Romero de Terreros concluded its origin is unknown to us: however, he was right to say that the second also belonged to Zamora.
Starting in the latter part of the 18th century and continuing through to the 1880s, municipalities, or people doing businesses with them, issued municipal tokens (or coins). Some of the coins bearing the name of a municipality also have the name or initials of an individual who may or may not have been authorized to strike coins for circulation.
Many are uniface - that is, struck on one side only. The majority of coins were die struck, using two dies. A few were made by using incuse punches. In several instances, worn state coppers were countermarked with initials to circulate in specific localities.
Although they did make small transactions easier, profit motive was probably the main reason for coinage of copper coins. Copper was much cheaper in intrinsic value than silver. Labor was cheap and simple dies could not have been very expensive.
The only book dealing exclusively with the subject of municipal coins of Mexico is Mauricio Fernandez Garza ‘s Las Monedas Municipales Mexicanas, which lists and illustrates approximately 300 different pieces. Manuel Romero de Terreros’ Las Monedas de Necesidad del Estado de Michoacán{footnote}Manuel Romero de Terreros, Las Monedas de Necesidad del Estado de Michoacán, Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas; Vol. II, Núm. 5, 1940, available in the USMexNA online library{/footnote}.give a careful description of 156 entries of municipal and hacienda pieces of the state of Michoacán.
As neither the federal or the state government produced fractional coins municipalities, haciendas and even private citizens were “allowed” to produce their own, though as these were repeatedly permitted and then prohibited, coins would be struck, then melted, and then struck again.
The latest study of municipal coinage is Ricardo Vargas Verduzco’ Enciclopédia Numismática de Michoacán: Vol 1. Moneda Municipal, illustrated with full colour images of the best example of each coin available, mainly from three main collections{footnote}There have been four previous studies of these coins, Manuel Romero de Terreros’ Las Monedas de Necesidad del Estado de Michoacán in 1940, Mauricio Fernández Garza’s Las Monedas Municipales Mexicanas in 1979, Grove’s Coins of Mexico in 1989, and a re-issued Fernández in 2014, but whereas Romero de Terreros had 156 coins (including haciendas and particulares) with only 10% illustrated, this new catalogue,has 240 coins, all municipal and mostly illustrated in full colour. The cataloguing is based on the first three letters of the town, numbering in chronological order with letters for counterstamps and revalidation, eg. ZAM-7a{/footnote}.
Vargas identifies two different issues.
Vargas identifies two different issues.
Vargas identifies two different issues.
Grove 71
Obverse:
Reverse:
Vargas identifies 20 different issues.
Grove 87
Obverse:
Reverse:
Grove 88
Obverse:
Reverse:
Vargas identifies four different issues.
Vargas identifies six different issues.
Vargas identifies three different issues.
Vargas identifies two different issues.
Vargas identifies six different issues.
Vargas identifies two different issues.
Vargas identifies eight different issues.
Grove 289 Cotija
Obverse: around the Mexican eagle TANTEO DE COTIJA UN 1/8 1856
Reverse: within a wreath of laurel and oak a radient liberty cap. JOSE NUNES
21 mm. bronze
Vargas identifies a single issue.
Vargas identifies three different issues.
Vargas identifies three different issues.
Vargas identifies nine different issues.
Vargas identifies a single issue.
Vargas identifies five different issues.
Grove 598
Obverse:
Reverse:
Grove 599
Obverse:
Reverse:
Vargas identifies seven different issues.
Vargas identifies three different issues.
Vargas identifies a single issue.
Vargas identifies six different issues.
Vargas tentatively identifies ta single issue.
Vargas identifies three different issues.
Grove 1823 Piedad
Obverse: PIEDAD 1871
Reverse: blank
26mm. brass
Grove also records a token with on the reverse, around the value '1' in a circle LA AURORA / L. C. & C. (Grove 1824) and another with two counterstamps on the reverse, one JOV (Grove 1825).
Vargas identifies three different issues.
Vargas identifies seven different issues.
Vargas identifies a single issue.
Vargas identifies thirteen different issues.
Vargas identifies six different issues.
Vargas identifies two different issues.
Vargas identifies seven different issues.
Vargas identifies two different issues.
Vargas identifies fifteen different issue.
Vargas identifies a single issue.
Vargas identifies eight different issues.
Vargas identifies two different issues.
Vargas identifies a single issue.
Vargas identifies 20 different issues.
Vargas identifies a single issue.
Vargas identifies a single issue.
Vargas identifies sixty different issues, including these.
KM-L81. Zamora. 1/8 Real Token, ND (1852-58).(Stack’s-Bowers Auction 28 February 2023, lot 71625)
"ZA" countermark and "1/8" countermark on a host that is virtually worn completely bare.
Vargas identifies two different issues.
The history of coinage in Mexico has a common factor - the lack of low denomination currency. During Spanish rule the smallest working denomination was 1/2 Real, (equivalent to 6¼ centavos) and its mintage was minuscule compared to large values, such as 8 Reales.
Moreover, even this denomination was too onerous and of too great a value. Although in the period mentioned above they occasionally minted 1/4 Real and 1/8 Real coin they were badly received and unpopular. It would be until the nineteenth century that states, with the multiplicity of mints in the Republic, produced 1/4, 1/8 and even 1/16 Real coins (decrees of the time permitted 1/32 Real coins but these were never minted). You might think that this money (mainly of copper and brass) was the solution, but quite the opposite: it turned out to be a calamity, because of the large amount of counterfeit, abundant and even clandestine currency, coined outside the limits of the law, for a population not yet accustomed to fiduciary systems based on silver coinage.
The arrival of the decimal system and its implementation in the second half of the nineteenth century partially solved the lack of small currency, with copper 1 centavo and silver 5 and 10 centavos coins. However, the use of Mexican currency throughout the national territory was not achieved until well into the twentieth century with the creation of the Bank of Mexico in 1925. There were parts of the country where the Mexican coinage was unknown, so they used various methods for everyday commerce.
It should also be added that the absence of means of payment results in the use of unofficial currencies, which is caused by multiple factors such as (i) the disappearance of currency in circulation, (ii) an inadequate or insufficient supply, (iii) the loss of value, and (iv) poor distribution, related to political instability, poor roads, and/or geographical isolation {footnote}Díaz Negrete, Juan Cristóbal, "Cuando falta el dinero: La Moneda de Necesidad en México", in La Moneda Independencia y Revolución, 2009, Banco de México.{/footnote}).
The hardest-hit areas were the south of the country, especially Chiapas, although barter or swap was an age-old tradition. It is well known that in some situations, tokens (fichas, tarjetas, planchuelas) or other generally metallic objects of a local/ particular nature were used, such as hacienda or municipal tokens. However, from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the first of the twentieth century the daily currency of Chiapas was the “cachuco”.
However, we can find backgrounds to this situation since the middle of the nineteenth century. Pradeau {footnote}Pradeau, Alberto Francisco, Historia Numismática de México Tomo I. 1957, Sociedad Numismática de México, México D.F.{/footnote} relates:
On October 22, 1869, and then on December 27 of the same year, a bill was submitted to the National Congress proposing that the currency (moneda recortada) cease to circulate in the State of Chiapas, and for it to be amortized by federal offices within two years. Mr. J. Cristóbal Salas, author of that project, noted that most of the currency came from Guatemala and showed a collection of pieces that he had brought for this purpose to the Session Hall of the Chamber of Deputies.
This is reaffirmed by Díaz Negrete{footnote}Díaz Negrete, op. cit.{/footnote}, recounting that since the nineteenth century Chiapas was characterized by the use of tokens from coffee plantations.
The “cachuca” coinage (from “cacho”, fraction or piece) was one made up of a diversity of issues such as Chilean pesos, Peruvian soles, Colombian pesos, and fractional currency of Guatemala, although the aforementioned coins were already demonetized (for the most part) in their country of origin and only circulated exclusively as a “legal” medium in Chiapas. The cachuco had a value of approximately 80-85 Mexican centavos. The Memoria de la Secretaría de Hacienda 1908-1909 mentions that most of the pieces were from Guatemala.
Several reasons supported this anomaly: (i) the scarcity of circulating currency in the state, (ii) the remoteness from the Mexican mint, (iii) the lack of means of communication, (iv) a premium of up to 35% over its face value was charged when obtaining Mexican currency, and (v) the correlative tradition and rooting in trade with the Guatemalan people.
Both nations had problems in common that allowed the use of the “cachuco”, Mexico had a fragile financial system, which had not manifested itself or reached the Chiapaneco territory despite the formation of the Banco de Chiapas in 1901, while Guatemala had problems with its paper currency, which was not properly backed in cash.
The cachuca currency was introduced to Chiapas by businesses through the payment of imports. It was initially received as merchandise (with pieces valued for their weight in silver), although later it was legitimized and even legalized. The Memoria de la Secretaría de Hacienda 1908-1909 gives the following background:
We refer to the circulation in the Departments of the State of Chiapas bordering the neighboring Republic of Guatemala of the currency called “cachuca”, which comprises all kinds of small silver coins, minted by the Central and South American Republics. Whether because of the frequent commercial relations that the peoples of that Mexican border maintain with those of Guatemala, where it is said that a lot of coin is minted in the other Central and South American Republics; lack of communications and traffic with the rest of the Mexican Republic and even with the other departments of Chiapas; or for both reasons together and perhaps also because of the local circumstances that are unknown to the Comisión [de Cambios y Moneda], the fact is that the currency in circulation throughout that border territory has become the “cachuca” currency, to the extent that in times not long ago the peso and other Mexican currencies were almost unknown to a good part of the proletarian population. In virtue of this and through necessity, local authorities came to sanction provisions under which the “cachuca” currency was commonly admitted to local public offices of certain Departments, at a certain discount in relation to the national currency; and for this reason, as it could not help but strengthen the custom of using “cachuca” currency, it gave room for particular speculations, almost always advantageous to those who undertake them, making them interested, for the same reason, in the continuation of this abnormal state of things, which have not been enough to make stop the repeated orders and provisions issued for some time to this area by the federal power and aimed at the offices that depend on it not to admit in any case , or for any value, the aforementioned foreign currency.
Having considered the above, the Comisión de Cambios y Moneda took several actions to overcome the problem, such as the purchase of the “cachuco” (starting November 1907) as silver for its subsequent melting and the shipment of fractional currency to the area. That same year it is pointed out that $736,257.74 of foreign currency was purchased at its metallic value: with Chiapas having a population in 1910 of 438,843 inhabitants, this draws attention to the abundance of this coin. It appears that the solution of such a situation would soon no longer be so resolved as the fluctuation in the price of silver in 1907 and 1908 stopped the acquisition of the “cachuca” currency.
In the Memoria de la Secretaría de Hacienda 1908-1909(footnote}Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Memoria de la Secretaría de Hacienda, Ejercicios fiscales: 1908-1909 y 1909 – 1910, Tipografía de la Oficina Impresora de Estampillas, Palacio Nacional. México D.F.{/footnote under the heading “Joint results of operations from 1 May 1905 to 30 June 1909”, the Comisión reports withdrawing “in Central and South American pesos circulating in the State of Chiapas” $333,571,00, and “in Central and South American fractional currency that also circulated in Chiapas” $533,452.05. That is, in just over four years it withdrew from circulation $863,023.05 (value in Mexican pesos).
In the Memoria de la Secretaría de Hacienda 1909-1910 “Mexican and Cachuca silver currency received from the Directorate” gives a monthly analysis from July 1908 to June 1909 of the foreign currency destined for smelting in the Mexican Mint, the most notable month being October 1908 with 99,055 coins for its face value, being in kilograms 2,122,400, the lowest month, June 1909 with 9,000 in face value and 193,127 kilos. The total between the period referred to is 482,440 in nominal value of the coins or 10,364,099 kilograms.
Having said that, the Government continued to report the illegality of trade in this type of coinage to the local authority. Even, it was asserted that the foreign money was used as legal tender to pay national taxes. In the same Memoria it reports:
It is obviously desirable to end the circulation of the “cachuca” currency in the State of Chiapas, and since the importation of silver coin from Central and South American wedges is not strictly prohibited, in order to melt it and turn it into bars, at the introducer’s cost, it is clearly indicated that the federal and local authorities of that State (the latter, above all), should be reminded of the prohibition on receiving taxes and other cash benefits other than in national currency, and especially individuals, under article 26 of the monetary law, to use in payment any object other than legal currency, under the penalty of a fine of the second class. At the same time, the Comisión will take measures to increase stocks of fractional currency there and simply buy “cachuca” as silver, so as not to harm its good faith holders, and by these concurrent means it is believed that this anomaly to our unique monetary circulation in the Republic will soon be extinguished. ‘
Although the problem existed throughout the Chiapaneco territory there were areas where both Mexican (in smaller quantity) and cachuca currency coexisted and in other areas only the second. All the west of the state starting from San Cristóbal de las Casas. adjoining Guatemala, was “cachuco” territory, while in the east Mexican currency achieved greater penetration.
It should be added that Guatemalan exports to Chiapas were made in Guatemalan currency, and no exchange was made so the merchants of Chiapas worked with this foreign currency on a daily basis. When the value of the peso rose as a result of the 1905 Monetary Reform, the difference between the peso and the cachuco increased, intensifying the exploitation of workers, who had to work harder to get the same amount of salary.
Concerned about the situation in these early years of the twentieth century, the Comisión de Cambios y Moneda sent large remittances of metal currency to the bank branches in Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Tapachula in addition to collecting and melting the silver cachucos to get them out of circulation.
In the face of currency problems, President Venustiano Carranza, on 14 May 1918, repealed article 22 of the Monetary Law of 1905 which prohibited the circulation of foreign currency. This gave legal status to foreign currency for a limited time , including the “cachuca”.
However, when Carranza created the Comisión Monetaria on 3 April 1916, among its objectives was to ensure internal circulation and serve as a conduit for the Federal Government to launch and withdraw currency issues. By 1925 it had 17 branches and 333 correspondents. Its structure was inherited by the Bank of Mexico years later. Another relevant factor for the penetration of southeastern Mexico came during the government of Plutarco Elías Calles, who provided a strong stimulus to the construction of infrastructure to expand national and international communication with roads, railways, airports, telephony and telegraphy.
When the Bank of Mexico was established in 1925 it had 24 branches located in different points of the national territory though only five of these original branches by the 1930s. The main functions of these branches were, in general terms, to distribute and collect cash, serve as a clearing house and make payments on behalf of the Government. By the third decade of the twentieth century the use of the “cachuca” coin was minimal.
The town changed its name in 1874.
Grove 199
Obverse: CHAMACUERO around T in centre
Reverse: blank
29 mm. bronze
Grove 200
Obverse: CHA / A* / CUERO
Reverse: blank
23 mm. bronze
Grove 201
Obverse: CHAMACUERO *
Reverse: blank
25 mm. bronze
Grove 202
Obverse: CHAMACUERO
Reverse: blank
25 mm. bronze
Grove 744
Obverse: PUEBL / DELOS / DOLO / RES
Reverse: blank
30 x 28 mm. bronze
Grove 745
Obverse: PUEBLO . DE.LOS / DOLO / RES
Reverse: blank
27 mm. bronze