The crisis of 1943

In 1943, during the Second World War, Mexico was again faced with a silver crisis (there was a combination of reasons: anticipation of a rise in the price of silver; the Mexican government’s agreement to sell practically its entire silver production to the United States for its military industry; and a boom in the Mexican and US jewellery industries). On 21 August it imposed a heavy export tax on silver products, to make it unprofitable to melt down silver coins to ship as bullion, and temporarily suspended a contract which promised all surplus silver production to the United States. However because of a shortage of fractional coinage, especially the fifty centavos denomination, it was compelled to authorise banks to issue cheques with printed denominations. All these issues were quickly withdrawn.

In Aguascalientes the Cámara Nacional de Comercio issued 100,000 25c and 150,000 50c cheques^{quantities from Saul Renato Garibay, Historia Numismática de Aguascalientes, January 1985}, drawn on the Banco Mercantil del Bajio, S. A., dated 1 September. The 50c note was signed by [            ]^{[identification needed]} and [             ]^{[identification needed]}.