The city of Zacatecas is the capital of the state of Zacatecas. Located in a rich mining area, the mint was first opened in 1810 during the War for Independence.
The first Republican issue from this mint were dated 1825. The next ten years can be considered the "golden age" of the mint due to the interest of state governments in improving the facilities and investing part of the profits in productive projects, as was the case of Francisco García Salinas, who in 1831 channeled them to partially finance the Fresnillo mining negotiations.
However in September 1842, the central government leased the mint to the Anglo-Mexican Company, with English capital, which had already leased the mint at Guanajuato since 1825. That company was represented by the firm of Manning and Marshall, which shortly thereafter changed its name to Manning and Mackintosh.
The reaction of the people of Zacatecas was swift. A few days later, on 8 October 1842, a supplement to the newspaper El Siglo XIX{footnote}El Siglo XIX, Núm. 362, 8 October 1842{/footnote} published the claims that the City Council, the Departmental Board, the Court of Justice, the Board of Public Works, the Commercial Court, the regular clergy and and many individuals, sent President Santa Anna to have the contract annulled, arguing that it was a very poor deal. Despite this, the government complied with the contract, handing over the establishment to the company on 19 October 1842. The lease to Anglo-Mexicana was extended from fourteen years - as originally planned - to almost 32, including its ratification in 1845 and extensions in the years 1853, 1857 and 1862. (In March 1853 the provisional government of Manuel M. Lombardini leased the mints of Guanajuato and Zacatecas to Jecker, Torre y Compañía. However, in May 1853 the new government of Santa Anna rescinded this contract without it being executed..)
The Zacatecas mint was eventually returned to the government at the same time as the Guanajuato mint in March 1874, in line with a policy to recover the administration of all the Mexican mints. However, this achievement was short-lived, for when Porfirio Díaz took up arms, at the beginning of 1876, the government of Lerdo de Tejada resorted to the the same mechanism that several of his predecessors had used to obtain funds by renting out the mints. That same year, 1876, the Zacatecas and Guanajuato mints were leased together again to the same company called the Compañía Guanajuato-Zacatecana, made up of regional businessmen with a Board of Directors based in the city of Guanajuato, and a smaller junta in Zacatecas. This contract was extended in 1879 and 1883.
The Guanajuato and Zacatecas mint were returned to the government in mid-1895, and the Zacatecas mint remained in operation until 1905, the year in which it was decreed to be closed as part of the measures implemented in Mexico for the adoption of the gold standard.
| from | to | |
| 1824 | 1836 | Government of the State of Zacatecas |
| 1836 | 23 September 1842 | Government of the Republic of Mexico |
| 23 September 1842 | 31 March 1874 | Cia. Anglo-Americana de Casas de Monedas (Manning & Marshall) |
| 1 April 1874 | 30 June 1876 | Government of the Republic of Mexico |
| 1 July 1876 | 30 June 1895 | Sociedad Guanajuatense Zacatecana (formerly Cia. Anglo-Americana) |
| 1 July 1895 | 21 May 1905 | Government of the Republic of Mexico |
| Initial | Name | Begins on | Ends on |
| AZ | probably Adalco and Mariano Zaldívar | 1825 | 1828 |
| AV | probably Adalco and Jose Manuel Villegas | 1826 | |
| AO | unknown | 1826 | 1828 |
| OV | Manuel Ochoa and Octavio Valenzuela | 1829 | 1831 |
| OM | Manuel Ochoa and Manuel Miner | 1831 | 1855 |
| MO | unknown (possibly Manuel Miner and Manuel Ochoa) | 1855 | 1860 |
| VL | Vicente Larrañaga | 1860 | 1864 |
| MO | unknown (possibly Manuel Miner and Manuel Ochoa) | 1863 | 1865 |
| JS | Jose Maria Sanchez de Santa Ana | 1867 | 1868 |
| YH | Ygnacio Hierro | 1868 | 1874 |
| JA | Juan M. Acuña | 1974 | 1876 |
| JS | unknown | 1876 | 1886 |
| FZ |
He went to Zacatecas to practice with Ingeniero Miguel Vázquez de León, and was administrator of the Salinas (saltbeds) at Chichimequillas, and then of the smelter de la Granja. He returned to Mexico City in 1867 to gain the title of Ingeniero de Minas, and then returned to Zacatecas to run several mining companies. During the administration of Gabriel García Elías (1870-1874) he was elected a local deputy and undertook various official commissions. He was a member of the city council from 1883 to 1894, In 1884 he wrote Apuntes sobre la minería del Estado de Zacatecas, which described the geological situation and extraction methods of the time and detailed the districts of Sombrerete and San Rafael. He was assayer at the mint and interventor of the Banco de Zacatecas from its founding in 1891 until 1899. He took over direction of the mines at Mezquital del Oro until he had to return to Mexico City in 1904. Always devoted to education, Zárate established schools in the various enterprises he managed, was Director of the Escuela Normal de Profesores and held various chairs in the Instituto de Ciencias of Zacatecas. In 1905 he settled in Zacatecas, and went on to be elected governor for the 1908-1912 term. He was known for his efforts to modernize Zacatecas’ infrastructure, which included the inauguration of the Centenario Market (now Mercado Genaro Codina) in May 1910. A prominent Porfirian liberal, he was forced out of office at the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. Revolutionary Colonel Luis Moya Regis launched a surprise attack on the capital in April 1911 with the specific intention of taking Zárate prisoner. While Moya failed to capture the governor, the pressure and advancing revolution ultimately forced Zárate to step down in May 1911. |
1886 | 1905 |
The assayers on its decimal coinage were:
| Initial | Name | Begins on | Ends on |
| S | 1876 | 1886 | |
| H | Ygnacio Hierro | 1868 | 1874 |
| A | Juan M. Acuña | 1974 | 1876 |
| Z | 1882 | ||
| FZ or Z | Francisco P. de Zárate | 1886 | 1897 |
| FM or M | Francisco Mateas | 1904 | 1905 |
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, which 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 esrly 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.
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| 25 March 1858 | 4 April 1872 | Government of the State of Oaxaca/lgnacio Mejia{footnote}Ignacio Luis Antonio Mejía Fernández de Arteaga was born on 1 September 1814. He studied in Oaxaca where he met Benito Juárez. In 1832 he was secretary to the commander of arms of the State of Oaxaca, General Isidro Reyes, and was promoted to captain of grenadiers of the state's National Guard. In 1846 he was a local deputy, and during the American intervention enlisted in the army. At the end of that war, in 1848 he was appointed military governor of Tehuantepec, and then head of the Political Headquarters of the Central District. He was appointed interim governor of Oaxaca from August 1852 to January 1853. He participated during the Ayutla Revolution, and when Antonio López de Santa Anna left the country, he was responsible for organizing the National Guard in the state of Oaxaca. During the presidency of Ignacio Comonfort, he was ordered to fight the Oaxacan governor José María García, who supported the Conservative Party. During the War of Reform he supported the Liberals and the Juárez government. In 1861 he confronted and defeated the troops of Félix Zuloaga, Leonardo Márquez and Tomás Mejía at Real del Monte. In 1860 he was promoted to brigadier general. During the Second French Intervention in Mexico he was the head of the Oaxaca Division and participated in the Battle of Puebla defending the position of Cerro de Guadalupe. He was appointed military governor of Puebla, serving from May 1862 to March 1863. During the Siege of Puebla he was apprehended and sent to France where he was imprisoned. In July 1864 he escaped and returned to Mexico; in October 1865, he rejoined the Liberal forces at Paso del Norte. He was appointed general of division and Minister of War and Navy by Benito Juárez, and held the post from 1865 to 1876, continuing under President Lerdo de Tejada. He was responsible for ordering the military tribunal that tried and sentenced Maximilian, however he opposed the execution of Maximilian and asked President Juárez to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment. When Porfirio Díaz became President of Mexico Mejía was exiled but he returned to Mexico in 1880 and ran for the presidency of the Republic, losing the elections to Manuel González. When Porfirio Díaz was re-elected, he retired from active duty in the Mexican Army and lived his last years at the Hacienda de San Nicolás Ayutla, in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. He died on December 2, 1906. {/footnote} |
| 4 April 1872 | 31 July 1893 | Government of the Republic of Mexico |
| Initial | Name | Began on | Left office on |
| AE |
Agustín Endner Agustín Ender died in May 1890 {footnote}El Tiempo, Año VII, Núm. 2003, 9 May 1890{/footnote}. |
1858 | 1860 |
| 1863 | |||
| 1865 | |||
| 1867 | 1890 | ||
| FR | Francisco de la Rosa | 1861 | 1864 |
| EN | Eduardo Navarro Luna | 1891 | 1893 |
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:
| Coinages per year (pesos). | |||
| Year | Gold | Silver | Total |
| 1859 | 997.00 | 57,212.00 | 58,209.00 |
| 1860 | 512.00 | 28,565.00 | 29,077.00 |
| 1861 | 13,303.12 | 74,427.06 | 87,730.18 |
| 1862 | 47,404.68 | 158,054.04 | 205,458.72 |
| 1863 | 89,534.54 | 166,232.09 | 255,766.63 |
| 1864 | 53,220.63 | 212,308.36 | 265,529.49 |
| 1865 | 48,734.95 | 202,073.68 | 250,808.63 |
| 1866 | 36,730.63 | 208,752.06 | 245,482.69 |
| 1867 | 46,385.05 | 168,073.96 | 214,459.01 |
| TOTAL: | 336,822.60 | 1.275,698.75 | 1,612,521.35 |
On 5 May 1859, governor Don Ignacio Pesqueira — in representation of the now FREE AND SOVEREIGN STATE OF SONORA AND THE PROVISIONAL OF SINALOA — commissioned the Mint of Culiacán to produce 1,066,667 Sonora cuartillas (¼th of a real) and 1,066,667 Sonora octavos (⅛th of a real) {footnote}Alberto Francisco Pradeau, Historia Numismática de México de 1823 a 1950. Tomo Segundo. Cecas de: Hermosillo, Alamos, Catorce, Chihuahua, Culiacán y Durango, Sociedad Numismática de México, México, 1960; Alberto Francisco Pradeau, Sonora y sus Casas de Moneda, Alamos y Hermosillo, Gobierno del Estado de Sonora. Hermosillo, 1983{/footnote}. This novel coinage was to weigh theoretically half an ounce the cuartilla (14.375gr) and 7.188gr for the octavo. Today, surviving specimens of these cuartillas measure ~33 millimeters in diameter and weigh ~13.78gr. Buttrey & Hubbard{footnote}T. V. Buttrey and Clyde Hubbard, A guide book of Mexican Coins 1822 to date, 2nd edition, 1971{/footnote} show the image of what is apparently the only specimen publicly known of an octavo of Sonora — appropriately dated 1859 and labeled as being 28mm and 6.7gr.
KM 337 Octavo of Sonora 1859
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KM 365 Cuartilla of Sonora 1859
The new cuartilla and octavo of Sonora share the same design: on one side, the national arms of the decree of 14 April 1823: a Mexican eagle looking to the right, with a serpent grabbed with its beak and right talons, with open wings and standing on its left foot on a nopal cactus of eleven segments that protrudes from a rock on a lake; at the bottom, one branch of olive (or laurel) to the right and one of Encino oak to the left, tied up with a ribbon; and above the eagle — in semicircle around the margins, the legend — “EST.O LIB.E Y SOB.O DE SONORA.” — Spanish abbreviations for THE FREE & SOVEREIGN STATE OF SONORA. On the other side there is this classical allegorical representation of Liberty, as a feminine figure with braided hair, left breast exposed, seating on a pedestal, facing left and holding a pole with her right hand and a Phrygian hat at the end of it; her left hand is resting and the pedestal stand on a blanket of flowers with a Cornucopia in front, facing right. Around the lady — in semicircle — from left to right the legend indicating the value — either “UNA CUARTILLA DE REAL” or “OCTAVO DE REAL” — followed by the issuing date flanked by dots. The seating Lady Liberty — a prevalent iconography in Mexican state coinage since at least 1828 — was introduced for its first time to Sonora in 1859 and on this matter it is difficult to ignore the artistic influence of contemporary American coinage:
KM 71 1851 Seated Liberty Silver Dollar (Heritage Auction #1124, 2009. lot 2576)
Perhaps what makes Pesqueira’s new copper so especial to our story is that it carries an European-like very distinctive Eagle design, known today as the “Sonora Eagle” despite the fact that it was not conceived in Sonora, neither inaugurated by Sonora nor exclusively used by Sonora. As far as I can tell, based on publicly known specimens, this eagle design was officially used for the first time in a gold ½ escudo 1851 struck by the mint of Guadalupe y Calvo in Chihuahua state (then, a subsidiary of the Culiacán mint{footnote}Pradeau, op. cit.; Mike Dunigan and J.B. Parker, Resplandores. Cap and Rays 8 Reales of the Republic of México 1823-1897, Superior Stamp & Coin. Beverly Hills. 1997{/footnote}).
KM 378.3 ½E 1851 GC MP (Heritage Auctions, 6 September2019, lot 31977)
In Sonora silver this special eagle design was used for the first time on the 2 and 8 Reales dating 1861; interestingly, always paired to a particularly large Liberty Hat design that, in consequence, has been also termed the “Sonora Hat” (or “Sonora Cap”). Dunigan & Parker refer to these two coins as: “…perhaps the most beautiful of the Cap and Eagle 8 Reales series. These coins feature the high relief Sonora Cap and Eagle. It was necessary to strike these coins under great pressure to bring up the details on the central devices“ {footnote}Dunigan and Parker, ibid.{/footnote}. I am from Sonora and I have to agree on this.
KM-377.9 8r 1861 Ho FM (Stack's Bowers Baltimore auction, 4 November 2010, lot 6348)
Wide "H", second "1" in date made with an "I" punch
In contrast, the earliest known appearance of this singular Eagle Hat pair occurred in Culiacán, in a copper pattern 8 Reales dated 1851{footnote}Dunigan and Parker, ibid.{/footnote}. Consequently, this “Large Liberty Hat” design is also not originally from Sonora.
Culiacán copper pattern 8r 1851 C CE (Re-colored {footnote}Dunigan and Parker, ibid.{/footnote})
The Large Hat design is known to have been used in various denominations of Culiacán Reales dating 1853, 1854 (paired with “Sonora Eagle”) and 1857/4 (paired with “Sonora Eagle”). It seems the Eagle design was last used in Culiacán silver coinage in 1857 (1857/4) — apparently recycling some old 1854 dies — but it continued in use on Culiacán gold coins of small denomination (½, 1 and 2 Escudos), at least until 1870. About the Culiacán Eagle design, Dunigan and Parker wrote: “Most of 1854 saw the continuation of the Sonora Cap and the introduction of the magnificent Sonora Eagle to silver coinage. This eagle made its only appearances on an 8 Reales of Culiacán Mint this year. It appears in Hermosillo in 1861 and 1862. Both obverse and reverse of the Sonora Cap and Eagle dies were produced from the same hub responsible for the 8 Reales pattern C 1851 CE. It is interesting to appreciate on why this reverse was not used on the 1853 issue. The Die Style of the 1854-1857 makes its first appearance this year. This Die Style is in much lower relief and seldom struck very well. Possibly the reason for discontinuing this beautiful design was that the minting equipment at Culiacán was not adequate to strike its high relief design. This is evident by the fact that well struck specimens of this issue are virtually non-existent. Many examples have extensive and severe die damage and deterioration” {footnote}Dunigan and Parker, ibid.{/footnote}.
KM 377.3 8r 1854 C CE (Stack’s Bowers auction, 24 June 2021, lot 72285)
Out of the 14 active mints of the nineteenth century Mexican Republic, only four mints are known to have used the Eagle design of the new 1859 Sonora cuartillas: Guadalupe y Calvo (GC) in Chihuahua (in 1851), Culiacán (C) in Sinaloa (in its 1851 pattern & since 1854) — both under control of the Jecker-Torre & Co. — Hermosillo (Ho) since 1861 and Alamos (As) in 1872, both in Sonora under the same Douglas-Symon-Miller administration. The Large Hat design seems to have been used only at Culiacán (since 1853), Hermosillo (since 1861) and Alamos (in 1872).
KM 374 2r 1872 A AM (Stack’s Bowers auction, 23 October 2019, lot 72547)
The migration of these punches, dies and/or hubs from Chihuahua/Culiacán to Hermosillo at one point before 1861 suggests a tight historical relationship between these mints — or at least between an artist engraver working for the private foreign entities that managed them. According to official accounts, the powerful firm Manning & Mackintosh owned the Guadalupe y Calvo Mining Company that was leasing the mints of Culiacán (C) and Guadalupe y Calvo (GC). In 1849, Mackintosh & Co. sold both mints to the firm Jecker, Torre & Co {footnote}Pradeau, op. cit. {/footnote}. The new leaseholders ran the Guadalupe y Calvo mint until 22 May 1852{footnote}Dunigan and Parker, op. cit.{/footnote}, when it was closed forever.
Die-association exercise between 1854/3 C CE (Stack’s Bowers & Ponterio auction, 2011) and 1861/54/3 Ho F/
C.M/E (listed as 1861/51) (Heritage NYINC Auction #3037, 4 January 2015, lot 30332)
Considering this, I regret to say that calling these designs “Sonora Hat” & “Sonora Eagle” — despite it sounding awesome to me — is, at minimum, misleading and perhaps it would be more appropriate to call them the “Guadalupe Eagle” (in reference to “Guadalupe y Calvo” 1851), the “Jecker Hat & Eagle” (in reference to the company that ran both the mint of Culiacán and Guadalupe y Calvo in 1851) or maybe just simply the “Culiacán Hat & Eagle” (in reference to the 8 Reales pattern of 1851 and to all the other coins issue there before any mint in Sonora was even running).
KM 377.9 8r 1862 Ho FM (Stack's Bowers Baltimore auction, 6 November 2010, lot 6350)
KM 377.9 8r 1862 Ho FM (Stack's Bowers Baltimore auction, 6 November 2010, lot 6353)
KM 377.3 8r 1853 C CE (Stack’s Bowers auction, 24 June 2021, lot 72283)
"MEXIGANA" legend error.
,
Alignment comparison between 8 reales of Culiacán 1854/3 C CE (Stack’s Bowers Baltimore Auction, May 2011, lot 8515), Hermosillo 1861 Ho FM (Heritage Auction #61167, 2010, lot 98102) and 1862 Ho FM (Stack's Bowers Baltimore auction, 6 November 2010, lot 6353).
Certain elements of the Culiacán die (such as the C, 5, 4, C and E) can still be seen on Hermosillo dies.
At the recent USMexNA Convention and Education Forum I displayed the 96%+ complete Crowe Lake Professional Coin Grading Service registry set of half escudo gold coins, the all-time finest known set of these coins. This set is collected by date, assayer, and mint mark, aka DAM, plus overdate varieties and includes additional dates and varieties not required by PCGS. Assembling this set has taken sixteen years. It is one of two known reasonably complete sets of these coins.
Acquiring the four coins required to complete this set will be difficult since there are only one or two known of each.
Assembling this set of 100 plus coins has been an extreme challenge. Joe “Pepe” Flores, a senior Mexican numismatist, advised “half escudos are one-third scarce to rare, one-third very rare and one-third so rare that you will be lucky to see one and probably not be able to buy it. The only thing rarer than the coins are the number of people that collect them.”
In many cases the only available coins are mint errors, cleaned, damaged and/or ex-jewelry. Now months can pass without an opportunity to upgrade this set. The most common coin is the 1825 Mexico City of which 200 to 250 are known. “Large numbers were not required since most Mexicans would not see that much money in months.” There are around 3,000 coins of the series known, and the estimated survival rate is under one-quarter of a percent.
This series began in 1825 when gold became available and when public demand for the coins existed. They represent a continuation of the half escudo coins issued by the royalist Spanish colonial government. The series ended in 1870 with the introduction of the Republic of Mexico peso decimal series of gold coins. These coins were particularly useful when travelling since they were smaller and lighter than the equivalent value silver coin. They could be well hidden from banditos or bandits in personal belongings. With limited exceptions all of the mints that made these coins were operated by non-government lessees from Europe.
The half escudo gold coin is the smallest coin of the five hand on book series and is equal to one United States gold dollar and is equal to eight reales or one United States dollar in silver. My research has identified die orientations of each issue plus sixty obverse dies and sixty-three reverse dies. Plus, it has been discovered that Mexico City used more than one die pair for several dates. as many dies were used for more than one year. Around two thirds of the dies for this series were used at the Mexico City mint and the balance at the six regional mints.
Mexican law established the design of these coins but there were no sketches of exactly what they should look like.
There were four different major design interpretations for each side. The law required slanted edge reeding but did not specify //// or \\\\. The law did not specify die orientation /\\/ coinage or medal /\/\. Minor changes were made as the series progressed. Law required the dies to be made at the Mexico City mint. However, die delivery could take years due to lack of tool steel and limited ability to move them safely to the regional mint customers. The regional mints, with the exception of Guadalajara, out of necessity, had most or all their dies made in Europe.
Obverse:
Legend: REPUBLICA MEXICANA (Mexican Republic)
Devices: Shield of Mexico with Eagle standing on a cactus tree with snake gripped in mouth and right talon with Lake Texcoco in the background under the cactus. Oak branch left and olive branch right signifying strength and peace.
Some Mexico City issues have the oak branch and olive branch reversed. Stops (dots) before and/or after legend are not always present.
Reverse:
Legends: LA LIBERTAD EN LA LEY (Liberty under Law), 1/2E, mint, date, two or three assayer initials and 21 Qs. (21 Qs = 21 of 24 karats pure or 87.5% gold). Stops (dots) in various locations. Stop, five-pointed star or six-pointed star before 1/2.
Devices: Hand holding a pole with a Phrygian cap pointing to a book of law. The Phrygian cap is identified as an ancient symbol of freedom from southern Europe to Persia.
Edge: Slanted reeding //// or \\\\ depending on the mint. In 1834 Durango used the •)•)•)• silver coin edge on part of their 1834 production.
Die orientation: /\\/ coinage and /\/\ medal depending on the mint and, for Guadalajara, the year of production.
Specifications and Coining Method:
Weight: 1.692 grams, 0.0476 ounces actual gold weight
Composition: 0.875 gold and 0.125 copper and other metals, primarily silver.
Diameter: 14 mm Thickness: 0.75 mm
Designers and Engravers: Unknown.
Coining method: Most had the edge raised by a casting machine and were then struck on a human powered screw press. Some later dates were made on externally powered mechanical presses with the edge made by a closed collar in the press.
These coins were made when gold was available and there was local demand for them. Between gold shortages and lack of demand the mintages were usually low and sporadic. The number of coins minted is unknown as mintages were not recorded. The mints only reported the number of total escudos of all five denominations of gold coins that they produced annually. Most of these records have been lost. In addition, the privately operated mints were known to underreport their production due to the twenty percent tax on coins owed by the mints to the Mexican government.
Richard Long wrote the book Gold Coins of the Early Mexican Republic 1823-1873 that was published in 2004. In it he compiled the number of public sales of each date, assayer and mint mark, from around 1940 to 2003. This compilation provides the basis of the relative scarcity and condition range for each coin. Since 2004, NGC and PCGS population reports have matured for these coins and these provide evidence that agree with Long’s book.
Mintages could be as low as thirteen and a high mintage would have been 2,000. The exception was 1825 Mexico City where the mintage was likely over 10,000 due to receipt that year of a 2,500,000 escudo gold loan from Europe. This and other loans resulted in much higher than usual gold coin mintages. The low mintage estimates of thirteen and multiples of thirteen could relate to the thirteen-coin arras representing Jesus and the Apostles that were given by the groom to the bride at their wedding ceremony as a symbol of trust..
These coins are customarily graded on the Sheldon 1 to 70 scale. A 1 is a Poor condition coin and a 70 is a perfect Uncirculated. Coins of this series that are above the grade of Almost Uncirculated 50 and not damaged are almost always rare to very rare. Fewer than 10% of the third party graded coins grade above Mint State 64. The third party graded coins represent around 25% and the highest quality of the survivors of the issue. Many surviving coins are cleaned and/or damaged. Until the 1960s, many collectors of Mexican coins cleaned their coins to make them shiny. Hairline damage is common on half escudos. King Farouk of Europe was known to clean his gold coins with a toothbrush and a paste made of baking soda, toothpaste, other chemicals, and water. Fortunately, early major collectors of these coins such as Amon Carter, Louis Eliasberg, Newman, Norweb and John J. Pittman were careful conservators of their collections.
Mexico was left destitute from the 1810 to 1821 War of Independence from Spain. Little commerce was possible. Almost the entire economy was based on mining and the minting of gold and silver coins primarily for export to pay for imported goods and government debt, and many of the best mines were fl ooded at the end of the revolution. Draining and repairing the mines required years.
A well-intended 1820s law to exile residents born in Spain had the unintended consequence of three centuries of builtup wealth being removed from the country. There were no true banks. The Roman Catholic Church of Mexico was still the local major source of financing. During his 1820 to 1830 reign British King George IV encouraged European banks to loan money to Mexico. The resulting loans helped fix the Mexican economy. The King also encouraged British engineering and foundry companies to work in Mexico. One result was that Marshall and Manning moved to Mexico and became the lessees of the great mints of Guanajuato and Zacatecas. The Soho mint provided modern equipment to the mints at Chihuahua, Culiacán, Guanajuato, Mexico City, and Zacatecas.
Much did not go well. By 1836 the government of Mexico was bankrupt and owed principal and interest payments on debt. They also started to lose over half of their territory, first with the Texas secesssion in 1836, then as a result of the 1846-1848 Mexican American War, and lastly through the 1853 Gadsden purchase of the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico. Both the 1848 and 1853 treaties provided Mexico with financial compensation from the United States.
Law and order were nearly non-existent outside of municipalities. Marauding groups of armed men roamed the countryside. There was continued civil factionalism and unrest in many areas. and during this time, regional mints were opened to avoid the need to transport ore at great risk of loss for refining and coining in Mexico City. Regional mints remained open and were modernized over time.
France officially invaded in 1838 and again in 1861 to collect debt owed but with the real intention to gain control of the profitable areas of the economy. Maximilian was installed by France as emperor in 1864 but deposed by Republican government loyalists in 1867 after the 1866 French withdrawal and the Republic of Mexico was reestablished.
The arrows point to the seven cities where the half escudo coins were made. Guadalupe y Calvo is the upper slanted arrow.
Guanajuato is the lower slanted arrow.
KM-378 ½E 1870 C CE
This coin has the Sonora style eagle used on the late coinage of Culiacán and Guadalupe y Calvo. The dies were likely made by the Soho mint in England. This die pair were in use from 1850 to 1870. There are three known 1870 C CE Culiacán. This coin is Almost Uncirculated 55 and it is tied finest with one other coin. Culiacán was the only mint to issue 1870 half escudos – the last year of the series.
The Mexican government approved this west coast mint to reduce rampant outbound smuggling of unrefined and hence untaxed gold and silver ore. The Culiacán mint operated from 1846 to 1897. The mint equipment was built in England by Finlay, Hodgson and Company and the Soho mint and was shipped to Mexico in 1833. Why production did not start until 1846 is unknown. The Culiacán mint, operated by lessees, was a moderate producer of gold coins and a heavy producer of silver coins. Small denomination coins were produced in small numbers for local circulation resulting in some extreme rarities.
Culiacán (C mint mark) produced half escudos with twelve dates from 1848 to 1870. Long recorded 321 sales. The edge reeds are //// and the die orientation is /\\/ coinage. Two pairs of dies were used. The first pair were used from 1848 to 1853 with redating. The obverse used a variety of a Mexican facing eagle style and the dies were likely made at the Soho mint in England. After the Guadalupe y Calvo mint closed, their Sonora eagle dies were transferred to this mint. The date, assayer and mint mark were changed, and Culiacán mint use started in 1854. With redating, these dies were used until 1870. Great rarities are 1856, 1866 and 1870 of which there are three known of each.
KM-378.1 ½E 1836 Do RM/L
This coin has the Paris style eagle used on the early coinage of Durango along with a much larger than usual book of law. This die pair was used from 1833 to 1855. The dies for this design were likely made in England or France. The 1836 D° RM/L Durango is the most common half escudo produced by Durango. Graded Mint State 65 it is the finest known half escudo for the date and the mint. The nearly full hand/book and snake detail is an extraordinarily good full strike seldom seen in this series of coins from any mint. This set started in 2006 with this coin.
The Durango mint was opened by Royalists in 1811 during the Mexican War for Independence. It made large quantities of gold coins from 1834 until 1843 and again in 1850. After 1850 gold production was dramatically smaller resulting in great rarities. Silver coinage at this mint was always large. The Durango mint closed in 1895.
Durango (D° mint mark) produced half escudos with twenty-one dates from 1833 to 1864. Long recorded 342 sales. The edge reeds are \\\\ and the die orientation is /\\/ coinage. A number of 1834 were made with the •)•)•)• silver coin edge reeding. The 1834 and 1834/1 in my collection have the •)•)•)• silver coin edge reeding. The 1834/3 has the intended \\\\ edge. Durango is recognized for having the poorest quality half escudo coins. Three obverse dies and four reverse dies were used. The first two obverses have the Paris eagle style. These first two die pairs were probably made in England or France. The last two die pairs, with a Mexican facing eagle style, were likely made at the Soho mint in England and put into service in 1859 and 1861 retiring dies used since the 1830s. The 1850, 1851 and 1852 issues are the only coins of the half escudo series to use three assayer letters – JMR. The uses of three letter could be due to JMR predecessor’s RM initials. Great rarities in my collection are 1852 four known, 1847/38 and 1853/33 three known and 1864 two known. All four are finest known. The Mint State 65 1836/1 in my collection is tied with two coins of the same overdate for the highest condition known from the Durango mint.
KM-378.2 ½E 1840 Ga MC
This coin has the facing eagle style used on all of Guadalajara half escudo and the half escudo coinage of all seven mints for at least some of their half escudo production. All known Guadalajara half escudo dies were made at the Mexico City mint. This 1840 Gª MC Guadalajara is the finest of two known. Still uncatalogued, the only two public sales occurred in 2011 and 2016. Although extremely rare the hand on book die has significant die cracks in the legend. This suggests that the mintage planned was small and that the die was used in an unhardened soft condition that would cause rapid wear. This coin is a stopper for collecting the series by assayer initials. MC is a one-year assayer.
Like Durango, the Guadalajara mint was opened by Royalists in 1812 during the Mexican War for Independence. This mint was authorized by the King of Spain sometime in the 1700s. The Republic government took over the mint in 1824 and continued operations until 1895. The Guadalajara mint was a small producer of gold coins and a large producer of silver coins.
Guadalajara (Gª mint mark) produced half escudos with sixteen dates from 1825 to 1861. Long recorded 120 sales. With sixteen dates and only 120 sales collecting Guadalajara half escudos is the most difficult of any mint. The edge reeds are \\\\. The die orientation is /\/\ medal up to 1842 and /\\/ coinage from 1847 until the end of production in 1861. Six obverse and nine reverse dies were used. All were made at the Mexico City mint. Illustrated above is the finest of the two known 1840. This coin was first owned by Richard Rosholm, a founding member of the Chicago Numismatic Roundtable in the 1940s, for under $50. He later sold it to now deceased Albert Hall. His widow found it in an ashtray in which Hall placed coins that he thought were counterfeit. Thankfully his widow delivered all his material to Numismatic Auctions where it was auctioned as an ungraded coin in 2016. It is now in a PCGS MS62 holder. Additional great rarities are the three known 1842 and 1847. The 1842 is finest known and the 1847 is tied with one coin for finest known. There are four known 1850 of which the coin displayed is second finest. The one known 1826 and one of the two known 1834 and 1838 are needed to complete this set. The not cataloged 1826 was auctioned by Stacks around 10 years ago. An Extra Fine 1834 was sold on eBay in 2010 for $1,625, a bargain.
KM-378.3 ½E 1847 GC MP
This coin has the facing eagle style used on the 1846 to 1848 production of Guadalupe y Calvo. These dies were likely made at the Soho mint in England. The 1847 GC MP Guadalupe y Calvo shown is relatively common with around 40 known and in Almost Uncirculated 58. This coin is tied with one other for finest known.
This mint operated from 1844 to 1852 and was operated by the same lessee as the nearby Culiacán mint. This mint was located inland to the northeast of the Culiacán mint in the state of Chihuahua. It had moderate production of gold and silver coins. The mint closed prematurely when the local Rosario ore vein played out due to reaching the water table without the means to pump the water out. After mint closure a significant amount of the mint equipment was transferred to Culiacán including the Sonora style eagle half escudo dies that were reworked for use there.
Guadalupe y Calvo (GC mint mark) produced half escudos with five dates from 1846 to 1851. Long recorded 136 sales.
The edge reeds are //// and the die orientation is /\\/ coinage. The mint used two pairs of dies. The first die pair was used from 1846 to 1848. The obverse used a Mexican facing eagle style, and the dies were likely made at the Soho mint in England. The second pair with a larger Sonora eagle were likely made in England and probably at the Soho mint. They were used in 1850 and 1851. This pair of dies were transferred to Culiacán mint and were first used there in 1854. My Mint State 64 1851 is tied with two other 1851 for the highest condition known for the Guadalupe y Calvo mint. There is one known of the 1850. It is one of the four coins needed to complete my set.
KM-378.4 ½E 1853 Go PF
This coin has the facing eagle style that was used on Guanajuato coinage from 1845 to 1853. The die pair was likely made at the Soho mint in England. REPUBLICA is misspelled REPUBLLCA. This 1853 G° PF Guanajuato half escudo in Mint State 63 is the finest known for the date and the mint.
The Guanajuato mint was started by Father Hildago in 1810 during the Mexican War for Independence and taken over by Royalists in 1812. The Republic government took over the mint in 1824 and production continued until 1900. During most of the Guanajuato mint operation it was the largest producer of gold and silver coins.
Guanajuato (G° mint mark) produced half escudos with eleven dates from 1845 to 1863. Long recorded 390 sales. The edge reeds are \\\\ and die orientation /\\/ coinage. Four obverse and four reverse dies were used. The first pair of dies were used from 1845 to 1853 and have the Mexican facing eagle style of the Guadalupe y Calvo dies used in 1846 to 1848 with REPUBLICA misspelled REPUBLLCA. They were likely made at the Soho mint in England. The next two pairs of dies were also likely made at the Soho mint and were used from 1857 to 1862. The last die pair used in 1863 are of unknown origin. The two 1863s in my collection with two different assayer initials are the only third party graded considered genuine examples of this date. The 1853 pictured above is the finest known Guanajuato half escudo.
KM-378.5 ½E 1850 Mo GC
This coin has the facing eagle style used on Mexico City coinage with minor variations from 1825 to 1869. The dies were made at the Mexico City mint. In 1848 smaller size letters were used on both sides for the first time. This 1850 M° GC Mexico City half escudo is the only date known with hybrid letter sizes – large letters on the eagle obverse and small letters on the hand on book reverse. This Mint State 61 coin is finest known of the five to seven known. The next highest third party graded coin is an Extra Fine 40.
The Mexico City mint was established in 1536 and was the first mint in the New World. During the Republic escudo era it was a large producer of gold and silver, except for gold in the 1830s and 1840s when gold mintage was at an alltime low. Unlike the other mints, the Federal government controlled the mint until 1847 when it was leased. This mint remained in operation until 1982 when production was transferred to San Luis Potosí. The last mint building, built in the 1700s, is currently occupied by the Museo Nacional de las Culturas.
Mexico City (M° mint mark) produced half escudo coins with thirty-four dates from 1825 to 1869. There is an 1825 5 over 4 overdate that suggests that dies were prepared for a 1824 coinage that did not occur. Long recorded 1,552 sales making this mint issue the most prolific survivor of the series. The edge reeds are \\\\ and the die orientation is /\/\ medal. All known dies were made at the Mexico City mint. Forty-one obverse and forty-one reverse dies were used. In 1840 four different obverse and reverse dies have been discovered. This could mean that up to sixteen die pairs exist for 1840. Four 1840 die pairs have been discovered to date. The oak and olive branches are transposed in 1833, 1834, and one 1840 obverse die. More die pair transposed branch discoveries are possible. Small font letters appeared for the first time in 1848 and were used until the end of production in 1869. A hybrid font 1850 die pair – reverse small letters and obverse large lettered - was discovered during exhibitor research. This 1850 has an obverse eagle die not seen on previous dates. This die is likely an 1848 or earlier leftover that the mint did not want to go to waste. Also in this collection is second finest known 1835 and the finest known 1850 of which there are five to seven of each. There are fewer than ten known of the damaged 1839 in the collection.
KM-378.6 ½E 1860 Zs VL
This coin has the facing eagle style used for both years of Zacatecas production. The dies were likely made at the Soho mint in England. This 1860 Zs VL Zacatecas half escudo in Mint 63 is tied finest known for the date and tied finest known for the mint.
Royalist minting operations started in Zacatecas in 1810 during the Mexican War for Independence. During the war it was operated by both the Insurgents and the Royalists. The State of Zacatecas controlled the mint until 1836 when the Federal government took control of the mint. In 1842 the mint was leased to Manning and Marshall. They successfully operated the mint until 1874. Manning and Marshall also operated the nearby Guanajuato mint. Zacatecas was a large producer of silver. This mint only made significant gold coinage in 1859, 1860 and 1861. The Zacatecas mint was closed in 1905.
Zacatecas ( Zs mint mark) produced half escudos in only two years – 1860 and 1862. Long recorded 91 sales. Although each date is relatively common, they are not regularly available on the market. For those collecting a type set of the seven half escudo mints the Zs coin is usually the last to be acquired. The edge reeds are //// and the die orientation is /\\/ coinage. The one die pair used has a Mexican facing eagle and was likely made at the Soho mint in England. The 1860 illustrated above is tied finest known for the date and tied with one 1862 for finest known of the mint.
References
Buttery, T. V. and Hubbard, Clyde, A Guidebook of Mexican Coins 1822 to date, Whitman, 1971.
Davis, Steve, Oral history of Rosholm/Hall 1840 Guadalajara half escudo: 2016
Doty, Richard, The Soho Mint and the Industrialization of Money, The British Numismatic Society, London, 1988.
Las arras matrimoniales – wedding coins https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-ideas/mexican-wedding-traditions#
Long, Richard A., Gold Coins of the Early Republic of Mexico 1823-1873, Wegfred Publications, North Bend, Oregon, 2004.
Poucher, Ralph, Coin Facts. An extensive series of internet articles published on www.mexicancoinmagic.com during the first decade of the 2000s. Poucher entitled many of the articles The Foxlair.
Pradeau, A. F., Historia Numismatica de México de 1823-1897, Superior Stamp and Coin, Beverly Hills, California, 1997.
My complete collection can be viewed by web search PCGS Crowe Lake Mexico or at https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/mexican-milled-coinage/mexican-first-republic/mexican-1-2-escudo-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1825-1870/alltimeset/286220
Real de Catorce ia an area with quite a few silver mines in the state of San Luis Potosí, 144 miles north of the capital city.
The miners had to send the silver to the capital for coinage, for which they paid costs such as transportation, discounts, commissions and taxes, the settlers always had the idea of establishing a mint to avoid these complications, another problem was that the road from the town to the capital of San Luis Potosí had gaps and bad terrain which caused delays in the delivery of the ore and the return in silver coin, this caused a lack of circulating currency in Real del Catorce which in turn caused an overvaluation of the prices of silver and the circulating currency.
On 12 September 1861 the federal government approved[text needed] the erection of two mint in San Luis Potosí (although the San Luis Potosí mint was already in operation since the decree of 30 March 1827). A short time later, on 23 September, the contract for the lease of the Mint of San Luis Potosí for a period of ten years was signed, with the commitment to install new machinery.
Since the government united both mints as one, the lease contract for both mints went to Senator Cayetano Rubio, who led a group of powerful miners in the area, but due to the instability of the time he had to cede the contract (made up of all his shares) to the brothers Víctor and Anacleto García y Cortina of Cortina y Compañía. In order to establish the Catorce mint they partnered with Santos de la Maza and Francisco de la Maza{footnote}for more información on de la Maza, see Pedro Cosi de la Maza, “Don Santos de la Maza and The Mint of de Catorce”, in El Boletín, Vol. VI, No. 53, October-December 1966 , Sociedad Numismática de México (available on the USMexNA online library){/footnote}. Rubio's contract with the government was for 47,000 pesos in cash and 53,000 pesos in bonds, in addition to a loan to the government for 187,903 pesos with an annual interest rate of 6%, for a period of ten years,
The minting machinery was purchased in Philadelphia from the Makers and Morgan Company, by Anacleto Terán and Anastasio García, the cost of the equipment was $80,000 gold pesos. All the tools were shipped and installed in the facilities that Santos de la Maza had built in the main square of the town, at a cost of $80,000. For a short time, the San Luis Potosí mint lent machinery to Catorce while the one they had requested arrived. In the same vein, a new lease was requested from President Juárez, which was granted for a new extension of ten years.
Despite the above, problems were not long in coming. At the end of 1863, a letter signed by the military commander, Manuel Bailen, arrived ordering the suspension of all work. There was great pressure in San Luis Potosí due to the arrival of the Imperialist forces, who had already taken the capital and secured its Mint. Real del Catorce was taken over from December 1863 to March 1866, with the mint closing in 1864, reopening the following year.
On 23 January 1864, the Juaristas fled from Matehuala and the Imperialists immediately entered Real de Catorce, On that same date, the cabildo of the capital of San Luis Potosí requested the closure of the Real del Catorce mint by the wishes of the Imperial Regency. On 11 December 1864, Juárez ordered the closure of the mint (despite it being in the hands of the Imperialists), and a counter-order for its opening was given on 3 January 1865.
During its period of operation (1863 to 1869), the Real de Catorce mint went through two wars: the War of Reform and the French Intervention. It is worth mentioning that from 1857 to 1861 there were ten governors of the state, a sign of the constant change of ideals of the time.
The mint began operations on 17 May 1863 by die-cutting the first silver coins of 2, 4 and 8 reales, There were small interruptions but the die-cutting work continued until 28 November. The Juaristas were in the town before leaving and witnessed the first coinage of the new mint, it is even said that President Juárez himself was present (hypothesis not confirmed).
| Date | Asssayer | Recorded Mintage |
Comment |
| 1863 | ML |
KM-374.1 Real de Catorce 1863 CeML 2r (Stack’s Bowers auction, 16 May 2023, lot 70509)
| Date | Asssayer | Recorded Mintage |
Comment |
| 1863 | ML | large C | |
| 1863 | ML | small C |
KM-375 Real de Catorce 4r 1863 CeML small C (Stack’s Bowers auction, 23 February 2022, lot 37442)
KM-375 Real de Catorce 4r 1863 CeML large C (Stack’s Bowers auction, 24 June 2021, lot 72358)
| Date | Asssayer | Recorded Mintage |
Comment |
| 1863 | ML |
KM-377.1 Real de Catorce 8r 1863 CeML (Stack’s Bowers NYINC auction, 14 January 2017, lot 3162)
Upon the arrival of Emperor Maximilian, fearful that Juárez's forces might take over the mint, he ordered its closure. Several letters were sent to the Emperor by the city council and citizens to revoke the decision, but Maximilian did not budge and the order stood.
In addition to these first complications, the governor of the state, Santos Degollado, imposed a forced loan of $20,000 on Real del Catorce: the leading miners as well as the city council refused to grant them, so Santos de la Maza was arrested. Due to this bad behaviour, a new forced loan for $35,000 was imposed shortly after, but as the coffers ce were almost empty, only less than half could be collected.
In August 1866 the town was again occupied by the Liberal colonel Pedro Martínez, the colonel's troops looted the town but found no more than 300 pesos, the soldiers broke into the facilities of the (now inactive) mint, stole machines and materials and broke the rest. It is important to mention that the minting presses had been moved to the capital in previous years, so the vandals only destroyed minor machinery.
The order to close the mint sent by Maximilian was administratively enforced in February 1866 through General Mejía with the main objective that the Juaristas could not make money. Months before, he had made administrative changes in the workforce of several mints, including Real del Catorce. Thus, in February 1866 he appointed Francisco Villar as assayer at Real del Catorce. Villar resigned shortly after, so in March of the same year Trinidad Gómez Gordillo was appointed assayer. However, neither of these has their initials on coins as "M.L." (Mariano León) appears on all issues.
In February 1865, the Prefect of the Empire, Darios de los Reyes, mentioned in a report that Real del Catorce mint represented losses to the treasury, compared to other mints, and requested that the contract be reviewed and nullified.
Due to all these complications, the town gradually lost its years of splendour, people closed their businesses and left, many moving to Matehuala taking advantage of the fact that it was also a relevant mining area. When Juárez restored the Republic, peace and security gradually returned, but stability was really consolidated in the last two decades of the nineteenth century during the administration of President Porfirio Díaz: In those years Real del Catorce returned to functioning, the mines re-opened and businesses returned to work.
The only date is 1863. Dunigan & Parker {footnote}Mike Dunigan and Parker, Resplandores, 1998{/footnote} argue that in 1864 and 1865 coins were dated 1863, so as not to offend the Imperialists, who had arrived in Mexico in 1864. On this same subject, Richard G. Doty{footnote}Richard G. Doty, 1992{/footnote} suggests that during the period of the Second Empire (1863-1867) multiple mints minted coins with dates prior to the intervention, such as Mexico City or Zacatecas, of which there is an abundance of coins from 1863, compared to other nearby years. This was because the tenants of the mint, not knowing how the precarious social, economic and political situation of the time would turn out, preferred to "shield" themselves and avoid trouble.
There is a possibility, according to Pradeau{footnote}{/footnote}, that copper coins were issued at the mint in mid-1864, since there is a document that obliges the citizens of the area to accept as official currency the copper coins are minted at the Mint[text needed].
This coin{footnote}listed in Frank W. Grove, Tokens of Mexico, with number 2022{/footnote} was minted (or restamped) on cuartillas or octavos of San Luis Potosí dated in 1859. The diameter of the piece is 21 millimetres, the restamp "Ce" is the abbreviation of the mint. There are varieties in stamps, the rarest being the one with stars surrounding the "Ce".
Finally, the State Legislature decreed the closure of the Mint on 15 November 1869, approved by the governor of the state, General Mariano Escobedo. Minting operations ceased on 28 November 1869{footnote}Pradeau,(/footnote). In a last attempt at survival, the Legislature approved a request to maintain the assay office until 1872, the year in which all operations officially ended.
During its years of operations Real de Catorce minted currency for a total of 6,281,008.25 pesos, 95% of it in 8 reales coins. However, it seems that this amount refers only to the coins minted in 1863. Montejano Aguiñaga{footnote}Rafael Montejano y Aguiñaga, “Las Acuñaciones de El Real del Catorce, S.L.P.” in the Gaceta de la Sociedad Numismática de Monterrey, April 1980{/footnote} reports that the mint produced coins for $1,321,545 in 1865 and $167,860 pesos in 1866, which should probably be added to the previous amount. Pradeau, mentions that the mint was reopened on 16 February 1865, minting in that same month 65,000 pesos.
Pomposo Sanabria was an engraver in San Luis Potosí from 1827 to 1861, and worked for Real de Catorce from 1863. In the 8 Reales coins of 1863 we can find the variety "Ce/Pi" this is due to the fact that several dies from San Luis Potosí were re-used in Real de Catorce, with only the mint and assayer changed in the matrix. There is also a ML/C variety, that is, with the Catorce assayer Mariano León, on a coin previously used in San Luis Potosí by the assayer M.C. (Mariano Cataño).
As a final reflection we can find several reasons why this mint was not a success despite being in a rich mining area. The first was its proximity to the mint of the capital, San Luis Potosí. In history this proximity to other mints always ends badly, as happened to the mint of Tlalpan with that of Mexico City. A second reason was the the political situation, with the conflict between the pro-imperialist conservatives and the pro-Juárez liberals. Thirdly, Real del Catorce is in a complicated geographical area, which made it difficult to transport and distribute its silver. And finally, the mint had the envy of its neighbour in Mexico City. Before the mint was established in Real de Catorce all the silver was sent to the capital (which opened its mint in 1827: when this ceased it angered the capital's residents.
The building where the Mint was located was returned to Santos de la Maza, where it became his offices, known as "Casa Maza." Today it is the "Centro Cultural Real del Catorce" where cultural events are held.
Santos de la Maza
| from | to | |
| 12 February 1861 | 28 November 1869 | Jorge Santos de la Maza, Miguel M. de Alavia and Viceme lrizan |
| Initial | Name | Began on | Left office on |
| ML | Mariano León{footnote}Mariano de León received an annual salary of $1,500 pesos for his services{/footnote} | 1863 | 1863 |
Francisco de Paula Zárate was born in Mexico City in 1843. He first studied at the Colegio Francés and then entered the Colegio de Mineriá and soon obtained the title of Ingeniero Topógrafo, Hidromensor and Ensayador de Metales.