Coins during the independence movement

As a result of the War of Independence, fine metal coins were hoarded and exported, leading to a generalized shortage of payment media in New Spain. In order to solve the problem, royalist officials authorized the establishment of provisional mints near the royal mines. Thus, mints were established in Chihuahua, Durango, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Nueva Vizcaya, Oaxaca, Real de Catorce, Valladolid, and Zacatecas. In several of these mints, official necessity coins were cast, although coins were also minted with designs different from those of the Mint of Mexico. Most of these coins were made of silver, with the exception of some gold coins minted in Guadalajara.

Other royalist issuances

In the face of some particularly urgent currency scarcities, some copper minting occurred in Mexican territory. Examples include minting at San Antonio de Béjar, Sierra de los Pinos and Lagos.

Coins issued by the insurgents

Because the miners were in the hands of the royalist authorities, the insurgent faction suffered currency scarcity and depended on forced loans and currency captured from adversaries. For that reason, the insurgents minted their own currency to pay their troops. The insurgent mintings were done with rudimentary methods, and because the insurgents had no silver supply, they minted just a few coins with this metal and most with copper.

In October 1810, Miguel Hidalgo commissioned José María Morelos to organize an army in the south of the country. Morelos became the leader of the insurgent movement after the capture of Hidalgo in March 1811. With Morelos, the insurrection was transformed; he managed to unite the ideas of intermediary groups with the demands of the people, and he proclaimed for the first time non-subjection to the Bourbon monarchy.

Morelos coins

The copper coins ordered by Morelos were equivalent to promises of payment. In other words, they could be exchanged for their face value in gold and silver coins upon the triumph of the revolution. Thus, for the first time fiduciary currency was used in Mexico. The obverse of these roughly manufactured coins bore a Morelos monogram along with the denomination and mint year. On the back, a bow and arrow appears, and underneath them, the word “SUD” (“SOUTH”). There were two main variants: A plain one, and another with profuse floral adornment. They were produced in eight, two, one, and half-real coins.

After the siege of Cuautla, Morelos spent several months in Tehuacán. When he left the city, he put the insurgent Manuel Mier y Terán in charge. It is believed that, in the assumption of minting responsibilities, Mier y Terán manufactured a coin type with the initials “T. C.” between the bow and the word “SUD.” These coins had a finer finish, whether due to more adequate machinery or more experienced workers. Several researchers believe the letters “T.C.” mean that the minting took place in Tierra Caliente. Others agree that the abbreviation means Tlacotepec, and still others, Torres de Cuautla. The most common coins of this type were eight-real coins; the rarest are those of two reales and those of half a real.

On November 25, 1812, Morelos attacked and conquered Oaxaca. He found a large quantity of silver bars there, allowing him to resume his mintings, both the “SUD” coins and a variety similar to the provisional Oaxaca coins. The mintings done in Oaxaca were Morelos' most important. Not only was the quantity large, but also the types, varieties and values were numerous. The coins were manufactured in silver and copper, both smelted and minted.

Although the Morelos coin type is quite uniform, there are several varieties due to the fact that the mintings took place in different locations (Tecpan, Huautla, Oaxaca, Acapulco, Tlacotepec, Chilpancingo, Cerro de Atijo, and Tehuacán). Despite research on this subject, we can only conjecture on the mint types, and there is no complete registry of the varieties. The key features of the Morelos coin design are the monogram on the front and the bow and arrow on the back. The monogram bears the letters “M O S,” Morelos’ initials. This feature seems to have undergone a transition from the plain letter “M,” to “JM,” to “JMo,” to “SMo.” But it is impossible to confirm that such a transition took place in that order.

The Zitácuaro junta

After Miguel Hidalgo’s capture, Ignacio López Rayón took command of the insurgent army and undertook an embarrassing retreat from Saltillo to Zitácuaro. There, on August 19, 1811, Rayón established the Suprema Junta Nacional Americana (the Supreme National American Junta), which was to rule in the name of Ferdinand VII. The junta, which he presided over, had to mint coins to replace the Spanish ones. The first were cast in silver in 1811 and part of 1812 in the denomination of eight reales. Roughly manufactured, they bear the name of Ferdinand VII because the junta was his constitutional representative, but the design motifs were purely Mexican.

To fight the junta assembled in Zitácuaro, the viceroy commissioned Calleja, who took the plaza on January 2, 1812. The junta was transferred to Tlalchapa, Guerrero, and from there to Sultepec in Estado de México. When the latter was attacked, the junta withdrew to Tlalpujahua, Michoacán, where a mint was established to cast coins. Mintings in silver and copper continued until 1814 and included all denominations, from half a real to the eight-real coins.

In the silver coins, both the diameter and the eagle are smaller. The front and the back have the same design as the smelted coins, but with different inscriptions. The junta also minted one-real silver coins, with a different design and an inscription on the front reading, “CONGRESO AMERICANO (THE AMERICAN CONGRESS).” Two types can be differentiated according to the inscriptions on the back. The belief is that these coins were minted in Angangueo, Michoacán. Also, there are those who think that they should be considered medals.

Because the junta of Zitácuaro presided over by Rayón was disorganized, and in order to counteract the interests of the creoles it represented, Morelos installed the Congress of Anáhuac at Chilpancingo on September 14, 1813. The Congress discontinued the use of the name Ferdinand VII and declared that Anáhuac was free from Spanish rule on November 6. In October 1814, Morelos and representatives from the Congress of Chilpancingo met at Apatzingán where they formulated the Constitution of Apatzingán, the first Constitution of Mexico, on October 22.

The mintings of the Zitácuaro junta show for the first time the vernacular features that became representative of our nationality: the eagle and the nopal cactus replacing the "Plus Ultra" of the royalist coins.

On August 30, 1811, the insurgent lieutenant general José Francisco Osorno conquered Zacatlán in the state of Puebla. In April 1812, he assaulted Mineral de Pachuca and there obtained a large quantity of silver bars, which he used – thanks to the advice of Vicente Beristáin – to establish a mint which functioned until 1813. The coins from this mint, silver coins of two reales and copper coins of one and a half reales, were rough. In addition to his own minted coins, Osorno more often used common colonial coins with his monogram stamped on them.

Royalists restamps

In addition to the royalist and insurgent monetary issuances discussed above, other issues were produced derived from the restamps or countermarks manufactured by both factions and made into coins from the plunder of the other side. In most cases, the restamp was made with stamps or punched holes which – depending on the situation – the factions used either to revalidate their own currency or legalize currency seized from the enemy. One royalist restamp is attributed to Manuel María de Salcedo, governor of the province of Texas from 1807 to 1813, who presided at the court which judged the priest from Dolores. Upon his return to Texas, the governor fell into the hands of the insurgents and was executed on April 5, 1813. His restamp consists of an oval stamp measuring 17x12 mm with the initials “MS” interlaced in a monogram.

Insurgent restamps

Due to the increased number of counterfeits of the SUD type coin, especially those made of copper, Morelos took severe measures against counterfeiters, but as they persisted in their activities, the Supreme Commander ordered that all circulating currency in the territories under his command be revalidated for greater control. The most common was rounded, about 13 mm in diameter, with Morelos’ monogram between two stars. In the coins that bear Ferdinand VII’s bust, the restamps are engraved precisely upon his face, which might have been done on purpose in order to cover the monarch’s image. Alternatively, it could just have been a surface characteristic which simplified the restamping.

Another insurgent restamp corresponds to Jose Francisco Osorno (? - 1824) from the Apan region of Hidalgo. He entered Zacatlán on August 30, 1811, leading 700 men. The Zitácuaro junta granted him the rank of lieutenant general. However, he was not under its authority. By September of that year, because of his indefatigability in the fight against the royalists, Mariano Aldama joined him, and later, several more insurgent leaders. In October 1811, he assaulted Mineral de Pachuca, conquering it in April 1812 and obtaining a great quantity of silver bars, which were transformed into coins. In 1813, he succeeded in commanding 3,000 troops, who fought from Apan to Papantla, Veracruz. He continued to fight for the rest of the war and in 1820 joined his forces with those of Nicolás Bravo. He died in Tecoyuya, Puebla. His restamp consists of his monogram, an 11x9 mm oval stamp with the interlaced letters “OSRN.”

Restamps of unknown origin

It is also worth mentioning that there are restamps whose origin is unknown, as is the case of the Mexican eagle, a restamp consisting of a coarsely engraved oval with an eagle holding a serpent in its beak in the center and marked on coins of eight, two, and one reales. It has been attributed to the general Vicente Guerrero, but its origin is not known for certain.

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