In the investigations that I have been able to carry out within the Historical Archive of the Government of the State of Durango (AHGED) we have located files (some already classified and others in the process of being so), as well as some Periódicos Oficiales, that give us the name of the Durango assayers. Up to now the mention of the assayers’ initials in various books and catalogs, based on the research of Dr. Alberto Pradeau Avilés and published in his work Numismatic History of Mexico has in the main been wrong. Dr. Pradeau relates some events that gave rise to the different administrations of the mint of Durango, as well as others related to the assayers, although he confesses to not knowing the name corresponding to several of the initials that appear on the coins. Likewise, others he deduces from some characters in the political history of the state as if they were the assayers, but without checking the sources of the files or newspapers from which he took that observation.
Therefore, I will here list the names and correct data of the characters, in chronological order, with the intention that the pertinent corrections will be made in the specialized books and catalogs.
1.-Initials R.M. In 2022, a file was located in the Historical Archive of the State of Durango, in the Finance section, so today we know that they belong to Ramón Mascareñas, an assayer at the time of the War of Independence coins, and not to Ramón Mendoza, as mentioned in the book by Dr. Alberto Pradeau. The data was found in a still unclassified box of files in the section of “Hacienda” from 1811 in the time of the Nueva Vizcaya.
2.- Initials M.Z. Like the first ones these were located in still unclassified files in the Colonial section where the name appears as Mariano Zaldívar with his appointment as the main assayer of the Durango mint.
3.- Initials C.G. This assayer’s name, Cosme Garcés, was very hidden within the Archive’s documents. In the vast majority of documents from 1818 to 1823 his name was not mentioned and on one occasion did we locate a document of the year 1810 giving some reports of assays in the San Luis Potosí office, where his name is mentioned. It was not known if this was the same character but now we can be certain that when he finished his function as an assayer in San Luis Potosí he was hired in Durango for the years from1818. The reference is made in unclassified files for February 1823.
4.- Initials R.L. Nowadays we can be certain that these belong to Ramón Luelmo, as located in 2011, in the files of the Acts of Congress (Actas de Acuerdos y Decretos del Congreso del Estado de Durango) of 13 July 1826, which reported the payment to the assayer. This was outlined in my first book, Reseñas Históricas de Casa de Moneda de Durango 1811-1877, which was published in 2014.
5.- Initials C.M. These belong to Cayetano Mascareñas and not to Clemente Morón, as was thought. This information was located in 2022, in file number 327 in the section “Correspondencias de la Secretaría General de Gobierno”.
6.- Initials J.M.R. José María Ramírez only appears in a few months in the monthly assay reports in the Periódicos Oficiales, but Cayetano Mascareñas continued to exercise the role of jefe de ensayes until 1852, so, due to the lack of documentation, we are still unsure about this period in the life of the Durango mint.
7.- Initials C.P. These are of Carlos León de la Peña Muñoz, a declared liberal and patriotic supporter of President Benito Juárez against Maximilian, who was forced to leave the position of director of the Durango mint. He held several public offices, as well as that of professor at the Juárez Institute in 1875.
8.- Initials L.T. These belong to Luis de la Torre, as several documents refer to his appointment as director of the Durango mint in the years from 1859 to 1866. However, some receipts for payments for assays bear the name of a totally different person called Francisco Izurieta, though we do not know why.
9.- Initials J.H. These belong to José O. Huitrado Aguilar, who was sent from Mexico City to perform the job of assayer. This information was found in the Periódico Oficial of December 1874 (data shared by my companion and numismatic colleague Javier Ruiz Celis).
10.- Initials J.M.P. These were said to belong to someone named José Miguel Palma but this name never appears in the records. However, Ingeniero José María Peimber was an assayer and then director of the mint at this time. Hence his three initials on the 1877 8 reales, the rarest pieces of the Durango mint.
11.- Initials P.E. These belong to Pedro Espejo and appeared in the Periódico Oficial of 19 September 1877 where it was announced that the assayer Carlos León de la Peña had been appointed Director General de Rentas in the state and that the new assayer would soon arrive to take up his position.
12.- Initials T.B. These belong to the assayer named Trinidad Barrera and appear in a file dated 14 November 1878 where there is talk of a trial of the previous assayer for mismanagement of the production of silver coins. This would have been Pedro Espejo who was replaced by Trinidad Barrera.
13.- Initials J.B. These belong to Jacobo Blanco. This name was confirmed in an original report of April 1885, provided to us from a private collection of an acquaintance in the United States, which includes the original signature of the assayer and a red seal of the Intervention of the mint of the government of Durango. Blanco replaced Manuel del Cerro, according to a letter dated 23 February 1885, in which the latter asked for permission to be absent from the office of assayer, to act as Interventor in the month of July. He returned as assayer according to a letter of 9 July of the same year. So the 8 reales with the initials J. B. are extremely scarce, as he performed his functions for just four months.
14.- Initials M.C. There is no doubt that these belong to Manuel del Cerro, although Pradeau asserted that these initials could correspond to one of two people: Manuel Canseco or Melchor Calderón. The correct name was found in documents in the section “Correspondencias de la Secretaría General de Gobierno” 1885. In these, addressed to the secretary general of the government, Manuel del Cerro asks for permission to retire for four months from his duties as assayer and Interventor (very special, since he had a double function within the mint).
15.- Initials J.P. These are of Ingeniero José Gómez Palacios but were confused with those of another assayer, José María Peimbert (J.M.P.) because of the very similar initials. The original names were found in the Periódico Oficial of September 1890, where it is alluded that this person works as assayer and Interventor of the Durango mint. At the beginning of 1892 he went to Monterrey to establish the federal assay office and in 1895 he was summoned by Leandro Fernández to Mexico City to help him draw up the “Regulation of Mints” which at that time were being organised on a federal basis. In 1896 Gómez Palacios went to Culiacán as director of the city’s mint but only lasted two years until, sick through the climate, he returned to Monterrey. In addition, he held a position on the city council of Durango in the years from 1911 to 1912.
16.- Initials N.D. These are of Ingeniero Norberto Domínguez that appear in the files of “Correspondencias del Gobernador” of 1896. It is mentioned that he was highly recommended as being well prepared in the matter of the assay of metals and for having occupied the position as Interventor and assayer from 1892 to 1895. In addition to being a professor of meteorology at the Juárez Institute since 1892, he also held positions within the city council from 1892 to 1893 and from 1895 to 1897.
As an appendix I include a table giving the amount of silver coinage for each of the assayers of the Durango mint from 1824 to 1895. These figures are approximations based on data collected from archive files (from the Durango Mint section, 1824 to 1888, in the Center for Historical Studies of Mexico, Carlos Slim Foundation) and taking into consideration information from the Krause catalog section on Durango 8 reales (1889 to 1895).
These figures are the total of the silver pieces for ½, 1, 2 and 8 reales in addition to the pieces denominated in the decimal system such as those of 5. 10, 25 and 50 centavos and the balance scales pesos.
The table also includes information on the dates that each assayer held office. However, It should be noted that in some cases two or three assayers worked in the same year, sometimes for periods of a few weeks or months so it is very difficult to know exactly how many pieces are to be assigned to each of them due to the short time in which they were made and for the lack of documentary information.
| Dates | Assayer's name | initials | |
| 1824 to 1829 | Ramón Luelmo | R.L. | 3,590,813 |
| 1830 to 1849 | Ramón Mascareñas | R.M. | 15,483,663 |
| 1848 to 1849 and 1873 to 1877 | Cayetano Mascareñas | C.M. | 5,119,603 |
| 1849 to 1852 | José María Ramírez | J.M.R. | 1,941,994 |
| 1852 to 1864 and 1867 to 1873 | Carlos León de la Peña | C.P. | 11,659,379 |
| 1864 and1865 | Luis de la Torre | L.T. | 1,414,992 |
| 1872 and 1877 | José María Peimbert | J.M.P. | 1,166,976 |
| 1878 | Pedro Espejo | P.E. | 900,919 |
| 1878 to 1880 | Trinidad Barrera | T.B. | 2,668,035 |
| 1880 to 1882 | José Gómez Palacio | J.P. | 4,272,788 |
| 1882 to 1890 | Manuel del Cerro | M.C. | 9,206,211 |
| 1885 | Jacobo Blanco | J.B. | 1,131,644 |
| 1892 to 1895 | Norberto Domínguez | N.D. | 5,512,000 |
In the history of the Durango mint we have found many facets of interesting issues for there is a rich variety in the coins that were minted in its 84 years of existence, both for their designs, legends and variety of metals. We have found varieties that are not recorded in the different catalogs that have been published by great national and international numismatists.
On this occasion we refer to some truly fascinating, extremely collectible and valuable coins, namely the 8 reales of the year 1824 with the Breast Profile or Hookneck Eagle. Thanks to the records that are kept in the Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), we have been able to solve many unknowns and are thus able to disseminate this information for all those interested in this issue of the coins produced by the Durango mint.
On 9 April 1823, the Congress agreed how the nation’s coat of arms should look:
1.- That the national shield is the Mexican eagle standing on its left foot, on a cactus arising from a rock between the waters of the lagoon, and grabbing with its right a snake in the act of tearing it apart with its beak, and that this coat of arms has as a border two branches, one of laurel and another of holm oak, according to the design used by the government of the first defenders of independence.
2.- That as for the national flag, it is the one adopted up to now, with the only difference of placing the eagle without a crown, the same thing that should be done on the shield.
On 14 April 1823 the sovereign Constituent Mexican Congress decreed:
1.- The government will order that new matrices be produced, as soon as possible and by the best engravers, to replace those that until now serve for minting currency.
2.- The gold, silver and copper coins will have a common obverse, stamping on them the coat of arms of the Mexican nation with on the circumference the inscription REPUBLICA MEXICANA (MEXICAN REPUBLIC).
3.- On the obverse of the silver coins will be placed a cap on which is diagonally written LIBERTAD (FREEDOM), from whose center several bursts of light will emanate. They will also express their respective value, the place and year of their manufacture, the initials of the names of the assayers and their fineness.
4.- On the reverse of the gold coins will be a hand with a rod, at the upper end of which the cap of liberty will be placed, resting everything on an open book, with the inscription on the circumference LIBERTAD EN LEY (FREEDOM UNDER THE LAW), with the marks or signs that in the previous article are designated for the silver coins.
5.- On the obverse of the copper coins palms will be placed to form a border, and in the center (except for the fineness and the names of the assayers) the marks laid out in the preceding articles.
6.- The government will take care, at the time of publishing this decree, to make known to the public, that the fineness of gold and silver coins is the same as those of the Spanish government for the past forty years.
The designer was José Mariano Torreblanca. Therefore, we realize why there were problems with the designs of the coins minted in 1824 in Durango.
What I will transcribe below is from a file of that same year in which six pieces minted in Durango were sent to Mexico City for examination, since there was an office called Gravado (of Engraving), which was responsible for giving approval for pieces to the foreign mints that existed since the time of the War of Independence. A very important one was the provisional mint in Durango that was opened in 1811.
The file, consisting of several pieces of correspondence, reads as follows:
CARTERA 8, CUADERNO 45, NACIONAL CASA DE MONEDA DE MEJICO.AÑO DE 1824, N° 922.
DEPOSITS THAT ARE MADE IN THE TREASURY OF THIS MINT BY THE COURTS AND TRIBUNALS THIS YEAR.
I send to you six coins of eight reales produced in the mint of Durango so that you can weigh, test and assess their fineness, giving me an account of the results to put to the consideration of the supreme executive power.
God keep you for many years, Mexico City. 22 March 1824. Frallaga, Superintendent of the Mint.
Mexico City Mint, 22 March 1824 - For the punctual fulfillment of this higher request, immediately send the six eight reales coins that accompany it to the chief engraver, judge of weights (juez de balanza) and assayers (ensayadores) so that each one proceeds with all the superiority attached to recognize their stamp, weight and fineness reporting what happens after the aforementioned examination. … Lardizábal – (to) José de la Santa Cruz.
Dear Superintendent –To take charge of what you ordered in your previous order about evaluating the coins that you said regarding the engraving, it is seen that they are chiseled, and not in the manner that the order says it is to be done, having so acted to the detriment of the public. This consideration can be proved if you think it worthy of being brought to the knowledge of his serene highness, the supreme executive power. – God guard your excellency for many years,
Mexico City, 27 March 1824. Rafael Lardizábal. (to the) Most excellent Minister of State of Finance.
I attach an original that is sent to the intendant with the coins for forwarding to the supreme government, and is by command of the same superintendent and presented on sheets of official paper, stamped with the current dues, 27 March 1824. José de la Santa Cruz.
The report by Francisco Gordillo, from the engraving office, states:
Without the quality of making several dies it is not possible to get the same results both with the eagle and with the sunburst (Resplandores). They are not made with punches. As regards the design the eagle is imperfect, the right leg, if it extends, will be longer than the left, the left foot that sits appears on the ground should be on the cactus, the stalks of the cactus appear out of center, the olive branches seem better as an ornament of laurel, the oak cannot give that symmetry as a bouquet of two leaves and two acorns. The posture of the eagle is loaded to the left, not in the center, on the letter is uneven because its talons are not arranged, and there are still some engraved with a chisel, not engraved with a punch, the posture of these do not acknowledge the circle because they fall in different directions This is what I can tell you about the matter. ---- Office of Engraving. Mexico City, 24 March 1824. - Francisco Gordillo.
The report by Miguel Gaitan Villasenor on the coins’ weight was:
Report.-Dear Superintendent. In accordance with what you instructed in the decree, I proceeded to assess the weight of the six coins of Durango and the result is as follows.
| WEAK (i.e. Shortage) |
STRONG (i.e. Excess) |
|
| No. 1 | 3 gs (granos) | |
| No. 2 | 2 gs | |
| No. 3 | 2 % | |
| No. 4 | 7½ % | |
| No. 5 | 3 % | |
| No. 6 | 5 gs |
I have found all the six coins defective, because although number two is (only) two granos short, this is outside the permitted limits. If they were all like this, there would be a mark with sixteen granos, which should not have more than eight and a half. So I have to point out to you that the six coins are completely defective in terms of their weight – Office of the Mexico City Mint, 24 March 1824. Gaitan.
Finally, the report of the three assayers on their fineness states:
Dear Superintendent.-The six silver coins of the Durango mint under test have resulted in the following fineness:
| FINENESS | |
| No. 1 | 18% |
| No. 2 | 18% |
| No. 3 | 19% |
| No. 4 | 18¾% |
| No. 5 | 17½% |
| No. 6 | 18% |
Assayers of Mexico City mint, 26 March 1824. - García Felada, - Cuevas, - Reyes.
So the summary was:
Your Excellency, to give punctual fulfillment to what you suggested in your letter of 22 March for the six eight reales coins produced in the provisional mint of Durango that were sent to the mint officials, the chief engraver, the judge of weights and the assayers in order that each should consider and examine them as to type, weight and fineness, and having evaluated these operations I attach to the original the file on this matter with the six coins numbered from one to six, in which is the information of the defects that each of these ministers has noticed in them. The first, the engraver Francisco Gordillo, notes what he wrote in his reports of 23 March, according to the regulations of his art. - The second, Miguel Gaitán Villaseñor the judge of weights, notes defects to be considered, such that if all the coins produced in Durango were like them they could not be issued to the public, because the coins numbered one, two and six have shortages in their weight that are greater than that permitted: the first of three granos, the second of two granos, and the third of five. The coins numbered three, four and five are found to be overweight, the first by two granos, the second by seven and a half and the third by three, as account of the note of the same Villaseñor, all being defective as explained in my report of 24 March. The assayers José García, Manuel Felada and José María Cuevas, in their report of 26 March, set out in detail the considerable defects of fineness of these coins, that does not allow the ordinary dispersal to the public in these two matters, particularly in that of fineness. Coin number one is 1½ granos short, number two two, number three one, number four one and a half, number five two and a half and number six two, defects so serious that before they are allowed in public each coin must be given a new increase, retested as to fineness, so that considered and examined by each one they might report what happened to them as to type, weight and fineness.
So far we have transcribed what this file tells us and we realize that not only these pieces of 8 reales had all the errors but also all those one and two reales of that same year that were also of the eagle in profile design. This is why in 1825 new designs in dies were sent from Mexico City to mint the new pieces and the earlier pieces that we have been studying were retired from circulation. This helps us to know why these pieces came out in only a single year, as we see today that they were disapproved of by the experts of the Mint and the design office.
It should be noted that the assayer of these coins was Ramón Luelmo who worked that year, and that in the proclamation number 38 of 11 August 1824 published in Mexico City by the Minister of Finance José Ignacio Esteva, the public were informed of the change in the designs of the national shield in relation to the position of the eagle. The first coinages showed the eagle in profile: from then on they showed it from the front.
The mint of Durango began its Republican issue in 1824, the year after the proclamation of the Republic, along with those of Guanajuato and Mexico City, but with different eagles and sunbursts and we have already seen the consequences of not having the appropriate designs or the weight or fineness so that in the studies that were carried out the determination was made to suggest that they no longer be produced or distributed to the public.
Customarily, while assembling our collections, we rely on the most popular or current reference available to mark our haves and needs and thus once an entry is filled, we will likely tend to ignore any specimens that turn up in the future, except perhaps when looking to upgrade them. As a result, we may miss the chance to encounter different varieties of a given specimen. Such is the case of the Durango ½ Escudo dated 1836 (this being the only mint that struck medios escudos for that particular year), which can be found listed in older references as a “1836 Do RM 6 over 4”footnote}Buttrey, T. V. and Hubbard, Clyde. A Guide Book of Mexican Coins 1822 to Date, 1st Edition (1969). Western Publishing Company, Inc. Withman Hobby Division, Racine, Wisconsin, U.S.A. and subsequent editions.{/footnote}, or additionally as a “1836/5/4 Do RM/L”footnote}David C. Harper, Editor. 2015 North American Coins & Prices. 24th edition. Krause Publications.{/footnote}. As you will see, the most popular available listings noted above, which may be supplemented by the more specialized reference by Richard A. Long{footnote}Richard A. Long. Gold coins of the early Mexican Republic, 1823-1873. Wegfred Publications, North Bend, Oregon, 2004{/footnote} that lists the coin as: “1836/4”, “1836/1” and also as the mentioned over-assayer “RM/L”, as well as other listings that may be scattered in several auction catalogs, price lists, etc. tend to deal with the obverse or “hand on book” side, and more particularly the interpretation of the different overdates, over- assayer and a combination of both, something that I will not try to mess with nor clarify in this short report, but they do not pay attention to the reverse or “eagle” side.
To my surprise, while recently researching the 1836 medio escudo, I realized that none of the major sources discussed above list the following interesting varieties found on the reverse:
KM 378.1 Durango 1/2 Escudo 1836/4 Do RM (Stack’s-Bowers Baltimore Auction, 6 November 2013, lot 21119)
KM 378.1 Durango 1/2 Escudo 1836/4 Do RM (Stack’s-Bowers NYINC Auction, 15 January 2019, lot 43538)
The following are some identifiers for the two distinct dies, which shall work even on worn down specimens.
| Skinny head snake | Fat head snake |
| 1. Thin or skinny snake head. | 1. Fat or oversized snake head. |
| 2. Snake head between space in REPUBLICA MEXICANA. | 2. Snake head under M of MEXICANA. |
| 3. Overall thin snake. | 3. Overall fat snake. |
| 4. Gap in laurel leaves points to dot after A. | 4. Gap in laurel leaves points to foot of A. |
| 5. Less elaborate oak and laurel spears. | 5. “Heavy” oak and laurel spears. |
| 6. Cactus extends beyond snake’s tail. | 6. Snake tail extends beyond cactus. |
| 7. Laurel appears to have no berries. | 7. Berries on laurel spear. |
| 8. Coin alignment (one specimen examined) | 8. Medal alignment (one specimen examined) |
| 9. Die damage or heavy marks on eagle’s left wing. |
At first glance, I was under the impression that the Skinny Snake variety could be a mule with a die intended for the ½ Real, but it appears that is not the case, at least by comparing it to available images of earlier 1830s silver issues.
As another option, a fellow collector has recommended checking the fineness of the gold, to rule on the possibility of one of them being a contemporary counterfeit. While I have not been able to do so, I must mention that both coins seem to share the same obverse die and available images of both varieties (in grading companies census as well as auction catalogs) suggest that both varieties are found struck in “good planchets”. Furthermore, the “Fat Snake” die is found on 1837 Durango Half Escudos as well. Lastly, I did a quick search on past sales records (online) of available specimens and found four (4) of the Skinny Head Snake vs. ten (10) of the Fat Head Snake specimens, without checking for possible duplication of sales of the same specimen for either variety.
Special thanks to Gabriel Gómez Saborio and Kirk Menczer for sharing images of some of their specimens.
Another specimen of the “Fat Head Snake” variety
KM 378.1 Durango 1/2 Escudo 1837/4 Do RM (Stack’s-Bowers ANA auction, 21 August 2018, lot 23296)
Durango Mint 1840-OMC Pattern 8 Reales
Nickel plated copper, grained edge reeding.
Specific gravity of 8.83. KM-Pn57; BH-Pn48.
The Republic of Mexico produced "cap & ray" 8 Reales at fourteen different mints from 1823-1897. The mint located in Mexico City served as the primary mint for the central government. A regulation was in place that the remaining thirteen mints were required to obtain specific minting equipment such as dies and matrices directly from the Mexico City mint. For this reason, stylistically the coins struck by the various mints were intended to be virtually identical with the exception of mint marks and assayer's letters, however this was not always the case and at times they tended to vary greatly.
For numerous reasons several of the branch mints acquired dies and or hubs from sources other than the Mexico City mint. European firms such as the Soho mint in Birmingham England, among others were able to supply the Mexican branch mints with desperately needed items such as coining dies at a significantly cheaper cost and often with a quicker turn around rate than that of the Mexico City mint. Although the origin of manufacture for certain die styles is known, for several it is not. Dies manufactured from sources other than the Mexico City mint were considered contraband and therefore illegal. For this reason, it is unlikely any of the Mexican branch mints kept actual mint records that point to the origin of their manufacture.
The Durango Mint Pattern 8 Reales of 1840 has been subject to several theories as to where it may have originated. Examining the characteristics of this coin can however help point us in a better direction.
1. The coin has a specific gravity of 8.83 which makes it nickel plated copper rather than base metal silver or German silver as previously thought. Normally found with varying degrees of flat strike most likely due to the amount of pressure needed when striking hard metals such as nickel.
2. The coin is struck with a steam press rather than with a screw press and bears reeded edge rather than a milled edge. The letters "O.M.C." in place of the assayer's initials could possibly represent "Oeschger Mesdach & Co." also known as "Eschger, Ghesquiere & Co." This firm had offices in France, as well as other countries in Europe and produced coins for various countries. Forrer{footnote}Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists{/footnote} cites "Flans et pieces de monnaies de nickel, de cuirvre et de bronze fabriques par MM. Oeschger, Mecdach et Cie" in his "Biographical Dictionary of Medallists." The metal, style and method of which this pattern was produced along with the placement of "O.M.C." in the legend would suggest that this is the firm responsible for its manufacture.
Another pattern was of silver plated nickel. The following example was "struck without eagle's breast in full relief which is a common sight on the other examples either silvered bronze or silvered nickel patterns of this type. Edge is also incomplete with about a third of it not having reeding".
KM-Pn59. Silver-Plated Nickel 8 Reales Pattern, 1840-Do OMC (Stack's-Bowers Auction, 13 February 2019, lot 71086)
[image needed]
An 8 Reales coin of 1842 Do mint, Assayer R.M., with the Mexican type eagle has a capital letter B just above the knot uniting the two elements of the wreath on the lower portion of the obverse. Clyde Hubbard suggests the letter B stands for the lessee, Bras de Fer.
KM-377.4 Durango 8R 1848/7 DoRM, hidden "B" and "G" in rays (Stack’s Bowers auction, 16 May 2023, lot 70421)
All of the 8 Reales coins of the Durango mint dated 1848 and some of the 1849 pieces have initials that were placed on them by the engraver of the dies. These exist in several combinations of B G Y, B G and Y distributed on the obverse and reverse representing the initials of the mint director, Bernardo Georgy{footnote}An explanation of the B G Y initials is found in the first published report of the Mexican Republican mints, Memoria de Hacienda sobre Casas de Moneda de la República, Mexico, 1849. Further details appear in. Pradeau's Historia Numismática de México, vol. 2, 1960 and Dunigan and Parker’s Resplandores,{/footnote}.
The State of Durango leased the mint in 1829[text needed] for a period of 15 years to Manuel Bras de Fer and Jose Antonio Pescador. The lease expired on 24 November 1844 at which time the mint was closed in absence of instructions about a new lease. On 5 February 1845 the State assembly signed a temporary lease[text needed] with a German Citizen, German Stahlknecht, making him mint director.
By law of 17 November 1824[text needed], all mints came under the control of the respective states in which they were situated; however, the centralist system of government prevailing after 27 October 1835 left the states with very little liberty of action. A law of 17 September 1846[text needed] stated that coinage was an exclusive right of the national government so that mints no longer came under the control of the local governments.
On 28 October 1845 the federal monetary commission recommended that the Durango mint be operated by the government and not leased to private parties, but Hacienda authorities did not approve the idea. A request was made by Joaquin Roldan to have the mint contract put up for public auction; nevertheless, the provisional contract made with Stahlknecht was reconfirmed as of 23 July 1846[text needed]. Shortly after this it was noted that the actual director of the mint was Carlos Stahlknecht, brother of German.
It was also observed that counterfeit coins were circulating in the area of the type, diameter, thickness and having all other characteristics of the genuine coins. Some such when presented to the mint assayer for examination were pronounced genuine at first sight but were found to be spurious when subjected to analysis. The fineness was only 5 dineros 12 1/2 granos (about .460) instead of the legal 10 dineros 20 granos (about .902). The most commonly seen counterfeits are dated 1833 and were made with genuine dies of the type made in France for Durango.
After confirming that bad money was in circulation the government named an inspector, Dionisio Guerrero Tavizon, to check mint operations. When Guerrero Tavizon, began to check the foundry records Carlos Stahlknecht transferred the mint lease to Bernardo Georgy. Confrontations between Georgy and the government inspector became so disagreeable that Georgy prohibited the inspector from entering the mint premises, ordering the guard at the door to use arms if necessary to keep him out.
Too many inconsistencies and violations of the terms of the lease existed so that the contract which still had four years to run was rescinded on 6 June 1849. During the arguments and counter-arguments that preceded this action it came out that Georgy had placed his initials on coins struck during his directorship to distinguish them from the counterfeits that were circulating. This of course was in direct violation of government regulations regarding coinage.