Other tokens from Chiapas

Lumija

Mexican Plantation Association

The Mexican Plantation Association, which was incorporated in Delaware in 1897 with a sales office in Chicago, Illinois, had a checkered history. In February 1898 John R. Markley, John B. Wellcome, Lee Mantle, E. W. Graves and D. N. Graves formed an association, and. with Isaiah B. Miller, caused to be executed and delivered to the Chicago Title and Trust company a deed of trust for 6,177 acres of land in Chiapas. At the same time, they entered into an agreement with the trust company that it should hold title to the property and receive and retain the funds of investors until all the proposed shares had been sold. One share for each acre was to be sold for $300 and the payments were to be in monthly instalments of $2.50 for the first four years and $5 a month for the following three years.

The land was being developed in 1900 and it was expected that within the year about 250 acres in coffee trees, 200 acres in rubber plants, and 5,000 new lemon trees and 10,000 new orange trees would be set out. The plantation also cultivated ginger, vanilla, pineapples and other tropical fruits^{Monthly Bulletin of the American Republics, Vol. IX, Num. 1, 1900}. By 1902 it was growing coffee, vanilla, rubber, etc.^{New Order. Volume 72. 1902.}

However, in February 1909 three Japanese Chicagoan merchants took the company to court. They claimed that they had been defrauded by the promoters, who, with false representations, had induced them to invest $3,500. After purchasing $2,400 worth of shares, they asserted, the promoters sent them "fake" dividends and encouraged them to make further investments. The promoters had claimed that in time the association’s dividends would be greater than any company in the United States except Standard Oil. The promoters were declared to have received upward of $1,000,000 from the sale of shares, but to have have spent less than one-tenth of this in improving the land. A month before the complainants had learned that the land was a jungle; overgrown with weeds and without transportation facilities^{The Inter Ocean, Chicago. Illinois, 26 February 1909}. 

Obverse: MEXICAN PLANTATION ASSOCIATION / 50 / LUMIJA
Reverse: BUENO PARA / 50 / CENTAVO / LA TIENDA

Despite its problems the plantation was still operating in April 1915 when its manager, C. G, Rieb, was fined for using his own paper currency.

San Cristobal de Las Casas

José Velasco Coello

José Velasco Coello was a businessman and official in San Cristobal de Las Casas. He is mentioned as a banker (banquero) in June 1894^{El Tiempo, 1 June 1894} and ran a clothing store (almacen de ropa) in San Cristobal de Las Casas in 1899. He was a member of the town council in 1892^{El Correo Español, 12 January 1892} and presidente municipal in 1897^{La Patria, 19 November 1897}.

Grove 2001
Obverse: JOSE VELASCO COELLO / CHIAPAS
Reverse: 12½
32mm. copper-nickel