Hacienda tokens from Yucatán (western Yucatán)

Municipio of Abalá

Hacienda Cacau

Cacau is located in the municipio of Abalá.

José María Ponce de León y Solís was born in Izamal, Yucatán in 1840, the son of Manuel Ponce de León y Marín, a landowner, and Laureana Solís. On 16 August 1861, he married Manuela Crescencia Cámara Luján, daughter of Nicolás de la Cámara y Castillo and Evarista Luján Domínguez. The de la Cámara family was a well-known family of hacienda owners descended from Juan de la Cámara, a Spanish nobleman and conquistador, who had arrived in the New World by the hand of Francisco de Montejo during the Conquest of Yucatán in the 16th century. His brother-in-law was Raymundo Cámara Luján, a landowner and businessman who was Ponce Solís' partner in several businesses.

Ponce Solís began commercial activities with Evarista Luján Domínguez, recently widowed by Nicolás de la Cámara y Castillo, to found the lingerie store La Fidelidad. With the savings from his work, Ponce Solís acquired the Cacao hacienda in Abalá, on the outskirts of the city of Mérida, which had been planted with henequen seedlings. At the time of its acquisition, the hacienda had two henequen stalk scrapers and a six-horsepower steam engine to process its production. As time went by, he also acquired the Ochil and Nabulá estates, in the same municipality of Abalá.

In his youth, Ponce was a great enthusiast of the port project of Progreso, being one of the first to acquire lots around the main square of the port. In 1880 a group around the conservative governor General Francisco Cantón Rosado obtained the concession to operate the Mérida – Valladolid railway line, the first railway project in the state. Ponce Solís was one of the people who financed the construction of this section, thus being in the economic vanguard movements of Yucatan.

Ponce Solís, in partnership with his brother-in-law Raymundo Cámara Luján, founded the casa comercial José M. Ponce y Cía., a firm that at the end of the 19th century became one of the main exporters of henequen, exporting 16% of fibre bales in 1898, only behind the firms of Olegario Molina and Eusebio Escalante. Its participation in the henequen industry was not concentrated in production but in the export of fiber, which was the most profitable part. However, he also produced fiber on his farm, Hacienda Cacao.

Ponce Solís did not concentrate merely on the henequen industry: he ventured into the industry manufacturing ice, chocolate and sweets, until he made what would be his masterpiece: the famous Cervecería Yucateca. Founded in 1900, with foreign machinery and with the support of E. Bannersfeld, a German brewmaster, who helped to establish the well-achieved quality of the beers. In its beginnings, the brewery produced 300 cases a day with 24 bottles each. Ponce Solís assumed the presidency of the board of directors while his son, Manuel Ponce Cámara, assumed the general management.

By 1902, the political situation in the state was becoming more complicated; at the whim of dictator Porfirio Díaz, Cantón Rosado had been replaced in the governorship by Olegario Molina Solís, an audacious businessman and politician with a liberal ideology. Molina Solís was not born into the traditional families of Yucatan landowners who were closely related to each other and, in many cases, traced their origins back to the colony. In his time as governor of Yucatán and, later, as secretary of development in the federal government, Molina Solís would make use of public power and closeness to the dictator to try to monopolize the henequen industry to the detriment of traditional Yucatecan families. This adversely affected the interests of Ponce Solís, who was ideologically opposed to Molina Solís.

Ponce Solís died in Mérida, Yucatán in 1913 at the age of seventy-three.

Grove 1465
Obverse: HACIENDA CACAU / 3 / 1889
Reverse: JMP (for José María Ponce)
16mm. nickel

Grove 1466
Obverse: HACIENDA CACAU / 6 / 1889
Reverse: JMP (for José María Ponce)
20mm. nickel

Obverse: HACIENDA CACAU / JOSE M PONCE
Reverse: ENTREGO / 500 / PENCAS
aluminum

Obverse: HACIENDA CACAU / JOSE M PONCE
Reverse: ENTREGO / 1000 / PENCAS
aluminum

Obverse: HACIENDA CACAU / JOSE M PONCE
Reverse: ENTREGO / DOS MIL / PENCAS
aluminum

Obverse: HACIENDA CACAU / JOSE M PONCE
Reverse: ENTREGO / TRES MIL / PENCAS
aluminum

Obverse: HACIENDA CACAU / JOSE M PONCE
Reverse: ENTREGO / 1 / MECATE
aluminum

Obverse: HACIENDA CACAU / JOSE M PONCE
Reverse: ENTREGO / 2 / MECATES
aluminum

Obverse: HACIENDA CACAU / JOSE M PONCE
Reverse: ENTREGO / 2 / TAREAS LEÑA
aluminum

Hacienda Mukuiche

Mukuiché is located in the municipio of Abalá, 60 kilometres south of Mérida.

Grove 1518
Obverse: MONICA CONTRERAS DE CAMPO / HACIENDA MUKUICHE
Reverse: ENTREG'O / 500 / PENCAS
33mm. aluminium

Grove 1519
Obverse: MONICA CONTRERAS DE CAMPO / HACIENDA MUKUICHE
Reverse: ENTREG'O / 500 / PENCAS counterstamped J M C
33mm. aluminium

Grove 1520
Obverse: MONICA CONTRERAS DE CAMPO / HACIENDA MUKUICHE
Reverse: ENTREG'O / 1000 / PENCAS
35mm. aluminium

Grove 1521
Obverse: MONICA CONTRERAS DE CAMPO / HACIENDA MUKUICHE
Reverse: ENTREG'O / 1000 / PENCAS counterstamped J M C
35mm. aluminium

Grove 1522
Obverse: MONICA CONTRERAS DE CAMPO / HACIENDA MUKUICHE
Reverse: ENTREG'O / 1 / MECATE / CHAPEO
30mm. aluminium

Municipio of Tekax

Hacienda Santa Monica

This hacienda was located in the municipio of Tekax.

Grove 1594
Obverse: HACIENDA STA. MARIA / TEKAX / RITTER Y BOCK SUCS, S EN C.
Reverse: 500 / PENCAS
25mm. aluminum

Obverse: HACIENDA STA. MARIA / TEKAX / RITTER Y BOCK SUCS, S EN C.
Reverse: 1000 / PENCAS
25mm. aluminum

Municipio of Ticul

Hacienda Yaxkopil

Yaxcopil is located in the municipio of Ticul in the department of Ticul.

Grove 1657
Obverse: HACIENDA  YAXKOPIL / FLORENCIO / TAMAYO, counterstamped M C
Reverse: 1500 / PENCAS
25mm. aluminium

Municipio of Umán

Hacienda Xkukul

This hacienda is in the municipio of Umán. We know of a 1906 5c coin with a counterstamp YKUKUL.

Hacienda Yaxcopoil

The name Yaxcopoil in Mayan means "place of the green poplars". Hacienda Yaxcopoil dates back to the 17th century. It began as a cattle ranch and was later a henequen plantation and at its peak covered 12,000 hectares.

The hacienda was purchased by Donaciano García Rejón Mazó and his wife Mónica Galera Encalada in 1864, and has remained in the same family ever since.

Obverse: YAXCOPOIL / VI
Reverse: monogram FC (for Fernando Cervera)
20mm.

Obverse: YAXCOPOIL / XII
Reverse: monogram FC (for Fernando Cervera)
23mm.