Municipal coinage of Coahuila

Saltillo

During the War for Independence, three prosperous businessmen and merchants of the Villa de Santiago del Saltillo, asked the local Cabildo for permission to mint their own copper coins.

Juan Nepomuceno Sánchez

Nepomuceno Sanchez
Juan Nepomuceno Sánchez ¼r

On 14 May 1812 the local council of Villa del Saltillo authorized the merchant Juan Nepomuceno Sánchez^{[text needed]} to manufacture 500 pesos in cuartillas, i.e. 16,000 coins, backed by a deposit of $500. It was requested that the applicant's surname be included on the coin, as well as a password represented by a lowercase letter "ese" crossed by a capital Z. José Miguel Lobo Guerrero, the President of the council, stressed that Nepomuceno Sánchez would be responsible for the damages resulting from the trade and public use of the money.

All the cuartillas were delivered around 19 May 1812.

José Toribio de Alcalá

Toribio de Alcalá ¼r 1813 (Briggs & Bustos auction IX, 13 September 2024, lot 270)

By 1813, another merchant, Toribio de Alcalá, asked for permission^{[text needed]} to manufacture 500 pesos in copper cuartillas, which were known among the inhabitants of the Villa de Santiago del Saltillo and the town of San Esteban de la Nueva Tlaxcala as "Toribio".

These had a peculiar design with a castle between the monograms 'TOR'and 'ALC'.

By 14 September 1813, according to a decree issued by the city council^{[text needed]}, the coins had resulted in a great benefit to local commerce and, especially, managed to help the poor people.

Torivio de Alcalá, at least, is known to have made 5,000 additional coins illegally.

José Antonio Pereyra

Nepomuceno Sanchez
José Antonio Pereyra

José Antonio Pereyra also asked the government to manufacture 500 pesos in copper cuartillas. The request was granted by the mayor, Juan González,^{[text needed]} who stated that the coins were valid for 1814 and 1815. The coins were known as "Pereira".

Each of these three businessmen managed to prevent the counterfeiting of their coins. In the case of Nepomuceno, he "wounded" the coin by marking it at the height of the "H" of Sánchez(?). Toribio replaced a circle with a star(?), a strategy that did not really work for him, because they counterfeited such a large amount of coins, that he ended up in bankruptcy.