$1 dos caritas - Norris Peters

A major difference between the Norris Peters notes and the earlier Maverick Clarke notes was the number of 'fans' (florecitas) on the reverse.

Maverick-Clarke

Norris Peters

First Norris Peters printing

1,500,000 notes printed by Norris Peters under the 18 July contract and dispatched in two lots. 720,000 notes (Series A, 750001 to 1470000) were sent on 10 September and 780,000 (Series A, 1470001 to 2250000) were sent on 30 September.

These notes had a circular red Tesorería seal and control letters on the back. The first batch (Series A, 750001 to 1470000) had a Type 2 sequence of letters

while the second (Series A, 1470001 to 2250000) had Type 3a letters and pseudo-Roman numerals. These started in a cursive script

though the E changed during E-CIVM

and then during F-CXM it changed to a thinner type and the M lost its tail

Second Norris Peters printing

1,500,000 notes printed by Norris Peters under the 8 October contract and dispatched in three lots. 480,000 notes (Series A, 2250001 to 2730000) were sent on 21 November 1914, 360,000 (Series A, 2730001 to 3090000) on 23 November and 660,000 (Series A, 3090001 to 3750000) on 29 November^{LG papers, 6-C-28, letter Navarro, Washington to Luis Gaxiola, El Paso. 9 December 1914}.

These notes are a mystery. They were printed in a lighter ink and, because these notes have twelve florecitas on the back, at first glance they appear to have been printed from the Maverick-Clarke plates. However, they in fact differ from both the Maverick-Clarke and the other Norris Peters notes. Maverick-Clarke notes do not have a diamond-shaped mark about 8mm above the ‘A’ in ‘ESTADO’, which these and other Norris Peters notes have. So these notes are a composite.

Maverick-Clarke

Composite

Norris Peters

It would be more glamorous if these were an unauthorised extra printing by Maverick-Clarke employees or dishonest agents, but their numbering means they must be a Norris Peters consignment.

These have a red circular Tesorería seal and Type 3b or Type 3c controls

The Tesorería seal was then changed in design and so the following have red scalloped Tesorería seal and either Type 5Type 5 or Type 4 sans-serif letters

and vertical Type 5v serial letters

Finally, there is a singular type with red scalloped Tesorería seal and Gothic control letters U-CB.

Further such 'composite' notes, including with the same control letters, are found among the third print run, which was dispatched from Washington soon after. So were they printed at the beginning of the third print run before reverting to the earlier plate? However the 'composite' serial numbers were intermingled with the others. As the numbers were applied in Washington and the serial letters in Ciudad Juárez, it seems that the notes were shuffled (in batches) in Washington before printing the numbers and then shuffled (in batches) again in Ciudad Juárez before printing the letters. Good luck to whoever tries to unravel this Gordian knot.

Third Norris Peters printing

4,500,000 notes (Series A, 3750001 to 8250000) printed by Norris Peters under the 16 November contract and dispatched in seven lots thus:

The last two consignments were received in Chihuahua on 11 February 1915^{LG papers, 2-F-51, letter from S. C. de la Garza, El Paso, to L. de la Garza, Torreón,19 March 1915; LG papers, 2-F-52/3-H-24, letter from S. Vargas, Chihuahua, to L. de la Garza, El Paso, 8 March 1915}.

These had scalloped red Tesorería seal and horizontal Type 5 control letters on back.

whilst others were Type 7 or Type 8 controls with the date

Some controls are also known vertical, as either Type 5v or Type 8v.

Amongst this number range (3750001 to 8250000) are found some more ‘composite notes’, with scalloped red Tesorería seal and Type 5 control letters.

and the following anomalies. 5186229 with circular Tesorería seal and S-KMS Type 3c letters

and 4455410 with circular Tesorería seal and T-IMU Type 3c letters

and 4266022 with scalloped Tesorería seal and T-IMU Type 5 letters inverted.