The Guadalupe y Calvo mint

Chihuahua Guadalupe y Calvo

Named in honour of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the governor of the state José Joaquín Calvo, the city of Guadalupe y Calvo is, in the southernmost part of the state of Chihuahua. Located 327 miles south of the capital city, Chihuahua, at an altitude of 7,643 feet, Guadalupe y Calvo was in a remote, but very rich mining area. Its remoteness was one of the principal reasons that local mining interests pressed for the establishment of a mint. The nearest mint was in Chihuahua and transporting bullion there was difficult and dangerous. There were frequent attacks by Apache and Comanche Indians, as well as local bandits.

On 3 October 1842 Dictator Antonio López de Sama Anna authorized a ten year lease to the British firm Mackintosh & Company, operating as Compañía Minera Mexicana de Guadalupe y Calvo. The mint opened on 1 June 1844. As specified in the lease, the original matrices were provided by the Mexico City mint. Guadalupe y Calvo mint

In late 1847 Guadalupe y Calvo became the first mint in the Republic of Mexico to employ steam powered presses for the printing of coins, only eleven years after the introduction of steam press technology at the Philadelphia mint.. This important event is commemorated by a medal bearing the name of the mint director, Tomas Mackintosh.

Grove 93a Silver medal reverse
Grove 93a Silver medal (Stack’s Bowers NYINC auction, January 2015, lot 1298)

The obverse of this medal has a nine line inscription that commemorates the first use of steam machinery for producing coins 'EN / CONMEMORACION / DE LA PRIMERA / APLICACION DEL VAPOR / EN LA REPUBLICA MEXICANA / A LA MAQUINARIA / DE AMONEDACION / TOMAS MACKINTOSH / DIRECTOR (In commemoration of the first application of steam in the Mexican Republic to the coinage machinery. Tomas Mackintosh, Director)'. The reverse has a nine line inscription that commemorates the first steam engine brought into the Sierra Madre 'LA PRIMERA / MAQUINA DE VAPOR / INTRODUCIDA A LA / SIERRA MADRE / COMENZO A ANDAR EN LA / CASA DE MONEDA / DE GUADALUPR Y CALVO / EN DIA 1 DE DICIEMBRE / DE 1847 (The first steam engine introduced to the Sierra Madre began to run at the Casa de Moneda de Guadalupe y Calvo. December 1, 1847}'.

In 1849 the lease passed to Jecker Torre y Cia., who, at the same time, also took over the tease for the mint at Culiacán. There were numerous administrative problems at the mint. Finally, coinage operations ceased in April 1852 and the doors were closed on 22 May 1852. Some of the modern equipment purchased for this mint found its way to Chihuahua where it was installed ca. 1860.

It is said that, between the opening and closing, the mint at Guadalupe y Calvo minted a total of 5,185,827 pesos, of which 2,690,104 pesos was in silver coins and 2,495,723 pesos in gold coins.