1888 gold five pesos coins

By Kirk Menczer

You cannot write about Mexico Second Republic gold coins without discussing the year 1888. It was a very special year for Mexican numismatics. It is the only year all mints, except Guadalajara, produced at least some gold coins. Two branch mints (Chihuahua and San Luis Potosi) produced gold 5 pesos only in 1888. There was similar very limited production of most gold coins produced in Mexico in 1888. The Mexico City mint produced a normal but limited mintage. I do not know for certain why so many mints produced gold in 1888. Interestingly, 50 centavos were produced only by Culiacan, Guanajuato, Hermosillo and Mexico City in 1888. All are exceedingly rare. One centavo to 25 centavos production was normal. As more historical records are digitized and made available to scholars it is not out of the question that a definitive answer may be found for these very limited issues. However, we can speculate. Mexico started using standardized dies in 1888. It is not unreasonable to think dies were made in Mexico City and sent to the branch mints where they were ordered, expected and/or encouraged to produce some coins just to see if the new system worked, if for no other reason. It seems very unlikely all these branch mints just happened to need 5 pesos in very small quantities for commerce in this particular year. This is further supported by the fact that numerous 1888 gold coins have mint marks over a Mo mintmark.

Here are examples from the eight mints which struck 5 pesos gold coins in 1888. Durango and Guadalajara are missing as there are no known examples of any 5 pesos gold coins being struck in 1888 at these mints.