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$1 Banco Minero note

Minero 1 A 001123

Minero 1 A 001123 reverse 

The original $1 face and back plates were engraved on 24 July 1888. The face was altered on 19 November 1894 by changing the date and SerieABNC.

Minero 1 detail1Peter Dunham has made the following observations on the imagery on this note. The $1 is a low value note so the audience for its ‘message’ will have been the lower classes, rather than the upper classes who used the higher denominations for banking and commercial transactions. The image in the primary position (on the front left, using the entire vertical field, with a partial cartouche and golden halo) has two elements, a seated native-looking woman with a feathered crown and palm frond, an idol under her right hand and fruit and sugarcane at her feet, on a carved stone throne, thus joining indigenous and archaeological themes. This image is much larger than the vignette of Commerce, whilst the bank’s headquarters are relegated to the back of the note.

The woman has an unspecified native air with no specific ethnic features but with a bare torso, long locks and bare feet. As for her status, she wears a generic native looking crown, but again nothing specifically Aztec. However, the details of the throne mark it as Aztec. It has a transverse anthropological figure in low profile, with a feathered headdress, studded ear, nose piercing, carrying a shield or standard with a central concavity, and holding what looks like a sceptre or orb but is in fact a spear thrower (atlatl).

Minero 1 detail2Peter has tracked down the origin of this image. It is a tepetlacelli, an Aztec sacred carved stone box (8” high, 12’’ wide and 9” deep, so far smaller than a throne), currently housed in the Museé de Quai Branly in Paris, though in the nineteenth century it was in the Louvre and was described in the Latour Allard collection c. 1830. Though his attributes such as the nose-peg and atlatl the figure has been identified as the powerful Atzec god, Mixcoatl, though this would not have been recognised at the time.

 

Hija de los incasThis is not the first time that the image had appeared on notes. It was used for a Banco Mercantil Mexicano 500 pesos note of 1881 that never circulated. There the image is again on the left but the tepetlecalli is obscured by the value. It was also used on foreign notes, a Dominican Republic note of 1886, a Colombia note of 1880 and a Peru note of 1873, but in each case the tepetlecalli was either cropped or covered by other features. So the vignette (with the tepetlecalli) dates back to the National Bank Note Company in 1873, before it was taken over by the American Bank Note Company, and was recorded as 'La hija de los Incas ( the daughter of the Incas), V 49229'. It is not based on a photographic reproduction but likely modelled on previously published illustrations as in Kingsborough’s Mexican Antiquities of Mexico (1831), Menzel (1857) and Lützow und Lübke (1858).

Peter suggests that the vignette was chosen to personify Mexico and signal her rebirth with the restoration of Mexican government after the French intervention. The orb is the renovated Mexican sun, the palm victory and the fruit prosperity.

 

 

Date of issueDate on notesSeriesfromtoGerentePresidenteInterventor 
11 January 1889 1888 A 00001 20000 E. Creel Ochoa Granados  
19 January 1889 20001 55000  
9 February 1889 55001 100000  
26 December 1890 B 00001 010000 E. Creel Ochoa Cuellar  
010001 020000 Cuellar's facsimile signature was added on 16 January 1891AGN, Antiguos Bancos de Emisión, Actas de Banco Minero, libro 1, 28 February 1888 to 5 January 1899
020001 030000 Cuellar's facsimile signature was added on 17 January 1891
030001 040000 Cuellar's facsimile signature was added on 18 January 1891
040001 050000 Cuellar's facsimile signature was added on 19 January 1891
050001 060000 Cuellar's facsimile signature was added on 20 January 1891
060001 070000 Cuellar's facsimile signature was added on 21 January 1891
070001 075000 Cuellar's facsimile signature was added on 22 January 1891
31 March 1894Cuellar authorised the issue on 10 March 1894 075001 100000  
28 May 1896 C 00001 50000        
  50000 100000       not issued

 

These early notes were withdrawn as a result of the 1897 Ley General de Instituciones de Crédito.

When Huerta relaxed restrictions on 19 November 1913 the bank issued $1 notes once again, in twenty-seven series, totaling 600,000 notes. The dateline now read 'CHIHUAHUA' with the full date applied at the time of issue (Type 8a).

On 24 November 1913 the bank asked the American Bank Note Company for the price and expected delivery time on 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 and 400,000 $1 notes similar to their last issue and on 28 November ordered 200,000 notes (100,000 Series A and 100,000 Series B). The ABNC had said that they could not use the existing plates, and the bank replied that they wanted something similar to the Banco Nacional de México but that the ABNC should use their own judgment in respect of text and all detailsABNC letter Banco Minero, Mexico to Charles T. Blackmore, Resident Agent, ABNC, Mexico, 26 November 1913. On 28 November the bank specified that the notes were to be signed by Luis Terrazas, as Presidente and Juan A. Creel as Gerente, but on 1 December asked to substitute Luis Terrazas with his son, Luis Terrazas, hijo as Consejero.

On 2 December the ABNC wrote to its agent to explain that he had misunderstood its telegram. It could not use the old plates owing to the fact that they were worn out, but could use the original die and simply produce new plates so the new notes would be exactly similar to those furnished in 1894. Hence they still have the anachronistic ‘en moneda de plata de cuño Mexicano’ rather than the more correct ‘a la par en efectivo’ .

On 13 January 1914 the bank ordered a further 100,000 $1 notes, Series C, with the signatures specified as being Martín Falomir as Consejero and Juan A. Creel as GerenteABNC letter Charles T. Blackmore, Mexico, to ABNC, New York, 20 January 1914.

Enrique Creel, on 19 January, asked the ABNC to leave the signature of the Consejero on the $1 note blank but the company replied on 21 January that there was no Consejero, rather Presidente, and that they had printed the notes according to the initial instructions and were shipping some notes the next day. They asked for further instructions but suggested that since some notes bore Luis Terrazas’ signature, the bank might prefer to have the remaining notes the same. On 22 January they were told to continue with Terrazas’ signature.

On 22 January the ABNC shipped 10,000 $1 notes (Series A, Nos. 000001-010000) on board the S.S. Monterey via Veracruz to the Banco Central Mexicano in Mexico City and on 29 January shipped the remaining 190,000 on board the SS Morro Castle.

Date of issueDate on noteSeriesfromtoGerentePresidenteInterventor 
    A 000001 010000 E. Creel L. Terrazas   Dispatched by ABNC on 22 January 1914, authorisation requested 3 February, authorisation granted 7 February
010001 100000 Dispatched by ABNC on 29 January 1914
B 100001 200000

 

However, when the notes arrived, it was realised that the ABNC had used Enrique C. Creel’s signature, rather than Juan A. Creel’s, for the GerenteABNC telegram, Charles T. Blackmore to ABNC, New York, 10 February 1914. Since this was unacceptable the ABNC reprinted the notes, leaving the signatures blankThe ABNC records note that the $1 face plate was altered on order F3985 by removing the year date, Serie letter and signatures (ANBC), and the original notes were cremated in Mexico City on 13 March 1914 in the presence of Charles T. Blackmore, ABNC’s resident agent, and representatives of the Banco Minero and the Banco Central Mexicano.

Minero 1 F9 543559

Minero 1 F9 543559 reverse

Date of issueDate on noteSeriesfromtoGerentePresidenteInterventorcode 
11 July 1914 23 April 1914 A 000001 100000 J. A. Creel L. Terrazas Casa Madrid   authorisation requested 3 February 1914CEHM, Fondo Creel, 85, 21987; authorisation granted 7 February CEHM, Fondo Creel, 92, 23578
B 100001 200000   authorisation requested 23 June 1914CEHM, Fondo Creel, 86, 22028; authorisation granted 23 JuneCEHM, Fondo Creel, 92, 23566
20 May 1914 24 April 1914 C 240001 245000 J. A. Creel L. Terrazas Casa Madrid 213 dispatched by ABNC on 25 February 1914; authorised 23 Juneibid.
245001 250000 222
250001 255000 233 dispatched by ABNC on 4 March 1914; authorised 23 Juneibid.
255001 260000 305
260001 265000 308
265001 270000 341
270000 275000 362
275001 280000 415
280001 285000 424
285001 290000 444
290001 295000 452
295001 300000 465
29 May 1914 200001 205000 001 dispatched by ABNC on 25 February 1914; authorised 23 Juneibid.
205001 210000 003
210001 215000 005
215001 220000 007
220001 225000 009
225001 230000 128
230001 235000 131
235001 240000 144
11 July 1914 23 April 1914 D 300001 310000 J. A. Creel L. Terrazas Casa Madrid 115 dispatched by ABNC on 15 April 1914; authorised 23 Juneibid.
310001 320000 125
320001 330000 161
330001 340000 098
340001 350000 650
350001 360000 732
360001 370000 750
370001 380000 815
380001 390000 933
390001 400000 222
25 July 1914 7 July 1914 E 400001 500000 J. A. Creel L.Terrazas Casa Madrid   dispatched by ABNC on 21 May 1914 ibid.; authorisation requested 6 JulyCEHM, Fondo Creel, 86, 22030, authorised 7 JulyCEHM, Fondo Creel, 86, 22031
410001 420000 433
420001 430000 434
430001 440000  
440001 450000 643
450001 460000 666
460001 470000 715
470001 480000 735
480001 490000 745
490001 500000 777
7 Aug 1914 22 June 1914 F1 500001 505000 J. A. Creel L. Terrazas Martínez 725 dispatched by ABNC on 12 June 1914 CEHM, Fondo Creel, 92, 23566; authorisation requested 6 JulyCEHM, Fondo Creel, 86, 22030, authorised 7 JulyCEHM, Fondo Creel, 86, 22031
F2 505001 510000 613
F3 510001 515000 575
F4 515001 520000 444
F5 520001 525000  
F6 525001 530000 222
F7 530001 535000 118
F8 535001 540000 919
F9 540001 545000 834
F10 545001 550000 718
G1 550001 555000 632
G2 555001 560000 544
G3 560001 565000 436
G4 565001 570000 319
G5 570001 575000  
G6 575001 580000 117
G7 580001 585000 817
G8 585001 590000 939
G9 590001 595000 001
G10 595001 600000 232

 

The original two tint plates (#1 and #2) made on 24 July 1888, two face plates (#2 and #3) made on 19 November 1894, two face plates (#A8 and #A9) made on order F4148, and two back plates (#A7 and #A8) made on order F4087 were all cancelled on 13 April 1932ABNC.