Evolution - the move from the reales system of coinage to decimal in Mexico

As part of my on-again off-again effort to take photos of coins that I have owned for decades, here are a couple of gold coins of Mexico.

Here's an 8 escudos from the early Republic. This republican design, initiated in 1823 at the Mexico City mint with the extremely rare hook neck eagle design. 1824 saw the introduction of the facing eagle.

These large gold coins were produced at a number of mints and there are varieties with different design elements, especially on the reverse. Still, the basic design lasted until 1873, when the last hand over book 8 escudos was produced at Hermosillo.

The quality of the strike for these coins can vary, with many weakly struck, particularly in the center. This coin has a good center strike, with a little softness towards the rim in places.

"Hand over book" 8 escudos, Guanajuato, 1836 PJ - rare date.

0.8750 fine

KM 383.7




Mexican republican coinage underwent a reform, with the introduction of decimal coinage in 1870. While the cap and ray 8 reales continued to be produced, a new coin was also introduced, the peso, along with the minor silver divisions of 10, 25 and 50 centavos. This reform had mixed results. While the system is a more practical one, the acceptance of the new peso in Asia was basically a disaster. Long accustomed to the importation of Mexican silver in the form of reales, the new coinage, the peso, was largely rejected by Asian merchants due to its radically new design, with the balanced scales replacing the old cap and rays, even though the peso's silver content remained the same and weighed slightly more than the old 8 reales. The balanced scale design peso was discontinued after 1873. The peso did reappear, in 1898, but with the cap and rays design.

The 20 pesos gold coin, introduced in 1870, shared the same design as the new peso - balanced scales on the obverse, and a facing eagle on the reverse. The 20 pesos continued to be produced by the mints until 1905.

This 20 pesos was minted at Guanajuato, 1872, assayer S. Its fineness is the same as the 8 escudos at 0.08750. An interesting feature of this coin is an apparent die clash that appears on the obverse, on either side of the scroll LEY.

KM 414.4

 

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Yet, curiously, it wasn't until 2001 that the SEC ordered all US stock markets to convert from eighths to decimal.

 

That is odd. Longstanding traditions die hard.