San Francisco Mint 1949 restrike of Mexico 1898 Peso

San Francisco Mint 1949 restrike of Mexico 1898 Peso
Brian Healy
January 28, 2006

In 1949 the San Francisco Mint struck 2,000,000 copies of a Mexico Peso dated 1898 for use in China.

These were made for the Chiang Kai-Shek Nationalist government (Kuomintang) which had introduced a new silver-based currency.
The Nationalist's were losing the Chinese civil war to Mao Tse-Tung's Communists and there was rampant inflation in the Nationalist controlled areas.

Also in 1949, the three US mints struck 30,000,000 copies of the China Sun Yat-Sen "junk" silver dollar dated "year 23" (1934) for Chiang.

This coin is listed as number KM 409.2 in Standard Catalog of World Coins 19th Century 1801-1900 by Chester Krause, Clifford Mishler, Colin R. Bruce II, published by Krause Publications, Inc., 1995, hereafter referred to as Krause.
The dollar-size Mexico silver 8 reales and peso coins were used extensively in China as "trade dollars" in the 19th and early 20th centuries, so the Chinese people and merchants were familiar with them.

Krause defines the "obverse" as the side with the Mexican eagle national emblem, and the "reverse" as the other side, for these coins the side with the liberty cap.
Krause states that the 1898 original reverse has 139 denticles and the restrike has 134.
Denticles are the beads around the rim of the design.

The peso restrikes have the original Mexico City mintmark "Mo" and the original assayer's initials "AM".
The original coins have the tops of the "Mo" lined up and the restrikes have the "o" in "Mo" moved higher than the "M".

The restrike obverse has 131 denticles.
The restrike reverse has 134 denticles.
The original obverse has 138 or 139 denticles.
The original reverse has 139 or 140 denticles.
I am continuing to look for examples with other combinations of denticles.
I have not found out what the original denticle count means, if anything.

Neither the original or restrike is "rare".
Krause (1995) values a restrike $40 and original $60 in uncirculated condition.
I paid $48 on eBay for an uncirculated restrike from a Texas seller who did not mention the restrike status.
I paid $23 and $20 on eBay for originals.

The peso is slightly larger than the US Morgan dollar and has about 1.5% more silver.
The peso is 39mm in diameter, weighs 27.073 grams, is .9027 fine, and has 0.7859 troy ounces ASW (actual silver weight).
The dollar is 38.1mm in diameter, weighs 26.73 grams, is .900 fine, and has 0.7736 ounces ASW.

The US mints have made many coins for foreign countries, from Australia to Venezuela.
Domestic and Foreign Coins Manufactured by Mints of the United States 1793-1980, published by Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Mint, 1981, has mintage figures but does not mention anything else about these coins.

Foreign Coins struck at United States Mints by Charles G. Altz and E. H. Barton, published by Whitman Publishing Company, 1965, has information on these coins.
This book states that only the US restrikes have the 131 bead obverse and that the originals have the 139 bead obverse.

Chiang Kai Shek's people probably took them with them when they fled to Taiwan with an enormous amount of gold and silver, and that is how they have entered the coin markets.

It should be obvious that since the restrikes never circulated and were made in 1949, they are usually found in better shape than the original 1898 coins which circulated to around the time of the Mexican revolution (1910-25).
Also the restrikes would not have Chinese "chop" marks.

I am still researching this topic, especially looking at historical works about the last days of the Chiang Kai-Shek regime in 1949.
So far, I have not found any mention of the Mexico restrikes, but I have seen notes about the "junk dollar" restrikes.

I am looking for more good photographs of original 1898 pesos.
If anyone has any which show the denticles, especially combinations other than those above, please let me know.

Examples:




San Francisco restrike
Obverse 131 beads and reverse 134 beads.
Notice that the "o" in "Mo" appears to be jumping up above the "M".




Original strike 1
Obverse 138 beads and reverse 139 beads.
Notice that the tops of the "M" and "o" in "Mo" are lined up.




Original strike 2
Obverse 139 beads and reverse 140 beads.
This coin has a die crack.

End

 

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Great article! I missed this until today... very detailed.

 

I think that I may have a few of those. Now I will have to look at them closely.

 

Ebay
It is easy to find both 1898 originals and restrikes on Ebay.
Just look for "peso 1898".
Some sellers mention the restrike status, others don't.

 

Willie,

That was a great post! It sounds like very interesting subject matter...of which I know very little about. But, I know a lot more now thanks to you. Good work!

Those are pretty neat looking coins by the way. The Libertad cap on the back with sun rays seems like a very strange, but cool image to put on a coin. Do you know the significance of why just the cap was put on the coins?

The connection to Taiwan and China is also very interesting. Doesn't it seem weird that copies of Mexican coins were made in the USA and were made for use in China?

 

I wish you wouldn't post this stuff, kind of makes me want one of these now, Mexican coin minted in the USA and used in China.:mouth:

 

Wow, how times have changed. Now everything is made in China, shipped in from Mexico, and used in the United States.

 

The 1949 San Francisco 1898 Mexico Peso China restrike
Article now on Internet

I revised my article and put it on my web site at:

Link to Article