Numismatikforum

For folks especially interested in how coins are actually used, here’s a recently-added entry in my notebook regarding Mexican circulating coinage in the early-30s….


X: A 1926 peso, one of the newest in circulation (only the ’27 was newer) when Stuart Chase observed the following in his 1931 book Mexico: A Study of Two Americas: “In many village markets, exchange by barter still obtains. In Tepotzlan [south of Mexico City], the cartwheel pesos, the tiny silver ten centavo pieces, the coppers in assorted sizes—particularly the coppers—will be the usual medium. No paper money is ever seen, and very little gold. Indeed the traveller in Mexico must revise all his monetary habits. He must secure a canvas bag and carry around a dead weight of silver pesos sufficient to sink him to the bottom of the saltiest sea. Paper money is unpassable, and his travellers’ checks are regarded with suspicion in the provinces.” (xx)

And it just so happens that I have a couple of worn-out Mexican coppers from that period on my desk in a box of copper culls. So here’s a little random support for the accuracy of Mr. Chase’s observation above, “…the coppers in assorted sizes—particularly the coppers—will be the usual medium.”

v.