Acknowledgements

I have been researching Mexican paper money for several decades and obviously many people have helped me over the years, including the staff of numerous archives. I am especially grateful to Elmer Powell and Cory Frampton for sight of their collections and permission to use images, to Ken Tabachnik, Clyde Hubbard and Rick and Kent Ponterio for letting them study documents and to the major dealers in Mexico, Duane Douglas, Bob Briggs and Angel Fregoso and to Huston Pearson in the US.

In establishing this website I began with some low-hanging fruit by cannibalising articles from the USMexNA journals and from the USMexNa online library. I have tried to acknowledge others’ contribution within the text, and where I have lifted articles substantially intact, as in the case of Cedrián López-Bosch or Nicholas Follansbee, I have given them their own byline.

During his time as a dealer and researcher Dick Long amassed a copious amount of information on the banks of issues (bancos) which he handed over to Cory Frampton, so we need to add his name to the roll of honour. Dick's work has been cross-referenced with the American Bank Note Company's order book (which Dick did not have) and checked against the notes held in the collection of the Banco de México. In addition to spending thousand of hours recording serial numbers etc. Dick also produced the tracings of the signatures that I have reproduced on these pages.

Images

As well as images from Elmer Powell’s extensive collection of revolutionary notes and the images from Mexican Paper Money I have occasionally lifted images from the internet. Generally I have not bothered to detail their provenance but in the case of Heritage Auctions I have used enough, particularly of high-quality high-denomination bancos, for them to warrant a particular mention.

People who have consciously sent me images for this website include Ricardo de León Tallavas, Duane Douglas, Cedrián López-Bosch, Robert Perigoe, Nicholas Follansbee, José Juan Cabuto Vidrio, Miguel Zea and Johann Sánchez Tellez.

I shall try to ensure that all contributions are acknowledged and apologise to anyone who has been overlooked or feels slighted.

Archives

Over the years I have visited numerous archives in the United States and Mexico, some several times. In the beginning I had to take photocopies and make handwritten notes, usually transcribing documents in full in case, in summarizing, I missed nuances. Nowadays I can speed the process up with a digital camera and a laptop but these have allowed me to become even more anal.

I have to acknowledge the patience and helpfulness of people in Mexican archives who, when confronted with someone who can speed-read old documents in Spanish but has difficulty in putting together a coherent sentence, never failed to go out of their way to be helpful.

I have made as much use as I can of primary sources but the results are necessarily patchy, among other reasons because it seems that when revolutionaries were not busy printing or restamping money they were busy sacking archives. Often only documentation from the victorious side survives.

Archives are referred to by the following abbreviations.

Periódicos Oficiales

Each state had its own Periódico Oficial, the official bulletin for the text of important local and national decrees, statutory notices, judgements and, occasionally, an eclectic range of local and international news, historical episodes, informative articles and homilies. They tried to maintain continuity so whenever a rival faction took over it would publish its own version, but with the obvious disruptions and the lack of newsprint there are unfortunately gaps. In addition different factions sometimes produced competing versions.

States were meant to send a copy to the Biblioteca Nacional in Mexico City but, apart from the states neighbouring the capital, this stopped between the removal of Huertista governors and the re-establishment of some kind of order under the Carrancistas.

In the footnotes where a reference is given as Periódico Oficial this means the official bulletin of the particular state in question (the provenance should be obvious from the text) unless specifically stated otherwise.

Memorias

The Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Publíco published annual Memorias (available to download from https://memoriasdehacienda.colmex.mx/mh/index.php). Less well known is the fact that from the 1880s through to the first decades of the twentieth century it also published annual Memorias de las Instituciones del Crédito. These recorded its oversight of the banks and included legislation, correspondence and the half-yearly reports of the Interventors of the various banks. Some reports are very cursory (for example, those for the Banco de Sonora) but others are very meticulous, recording dates and details of issues and incinerations and other problems with the banks.

All in all, these Memorias are a priceless source of knowledge but also extremely difficult to find.

It is worth digressing with an anecdote. In 2010 I was in Mexico City researching then just the banks of Sonora and Chihuahua. I went to the Secretaria’s library, the Biblioteca Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, and finally managed to persuade them of the differences between the commonplace Memorias and these Memorias de las Instituciones del Crédito. Unfortunately it transpired that the latter were to be found in another part of the library, the Capilla Rosa within the National Palace, and this was closed for long-term refurbishment. Nonetheless, they were willing to open up the Capilla for me and for a couple of days I worked in glorious isolation, photographing all the pages that I wanted, watched by a minder from the Secretaría. I wish I could remember his name, and that of his boss, for a gesture that I doubt I would have received from any British or American institution.

Newspapers

At times Mexico had a vibrant press but during the revolution partiality, official or self-imposed censorship, and (in some areas) lack of paper, meant that, with the exception of Mexico City, newspapers were rare, and one had more chance of learning of the fortunes of the Allies on the Western Front than of any fighting nearer to home.

Incomplete (and increasingly fragile) collections of many local newspapers are in local archives, which means the avid researcher has to travel, but the Biblioteca Nacional holds the national collection and has put many titles online (http://www.hndm.unam.mx/index.php/es/)

As a result of my research I have built up sizeable files, sometimes up to a couple of hundred pages, recording the mention of paper currency in state, municipal or private archives, newspapers or Periódicos Oficiales. If you are interested in a particular archive, please contact me.