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Counterfeit $5 Ejército Constitucionalista notes Types 5-7

Counterfeit $5 Ejército Constitucionalista Type 5

The C/Y difference was first recorded in a Carrancista notice of 19 January 1915 (repeated in a notice of February 1915), though officials later said that it was the result of different printings rather than counterfeiting. On 18 February  the Jefe de Hacienda in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, notified the Tesorero Municipal of a counterfeit $5 note, describing it as with an inverted C, and with the shadow of the snow as imperfect (Diferencias más notables palabras Ejército Constitucionalista, Interior E legítima figura Y. falsos C invertida. Nieve montañas sombra blanca imperfecta)AMMat, Archivo General 1915, exp. 1475 minutas de comunicaciones de enero a abril de 1915.

Ejercito 5 B 130453

Ejercito 5 B 130453 reverse

GENUINECOUNTERFEIT
background to ‘EJÉRCITO CONSTITUCIONALISTA DE MÉXICO’ is made up of very fine horizontal and frequently diagonal lines forming the pattern known as matting (petatillo) the background is made up of rough vertical lines

 ec5count5c

the ‘I T’ of ‘EJÉRCITO’ are separate

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the letters are closely joined

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the ‘C’ of ‘CONSTITUCIONALISTA’ is separate from the ‘O’ of ‘EJÉRCITO’ and the impression is finer

ec5count5f 

letter ‘C’ is much nearer the ‘O’ and the impression is cruder

ec5count5g 

the inside of the letter ‘E’ of ‘EJÉRCITO’ forms a Y

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the inside forms an inverted C
  the letters are a different size (one needs a pair of compasses to measure them)
The snow is clearly reflected in the water The snow is reflected only as a indistinct white shadow
Eagle’s feathers are well drawn (finas y bien acabadas) feathers are crudely drawn with a whitish background
As a general rule the ‘No’s are printed over or very close to the black borders the ‘No’s are further from the edges

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In Aguirre’s signature there is a point in the centre of the circle of the tail of the G

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no point in the tail of the G

 

Similar characteristics were listed in a notice of September 1915.

Background is of horizontal lines printed with the greatest perfection Background is white (fondo blanco)
  The paper is extremely run of the mill (corriente) and the impression of ‘que la Tesoreria recibirá y pagará’ etc. is rough and ready, the whole of the printing being generally coarser

 ec5count5g

the inside of the letter ‘E’ of ‘EJÉRCITO’ forms a Y

 ec5count5h

the inside forms an inverted C
The snow and mountains are clearly reflected

The detail of the snow on the mountains is unfinished and the mountains are not reflected in the water with any clarity

 

Known examples have the following control letters: IV-A(inverted) O-IV, VII-A O-VII, VIII-A O-VIII, XII-A O-XII, II-A(inverted) II-O, A-III(inverted) III-O, A-IX IX-O, A-X X-O, A-IX IX-O, and A-X X-O which generally have the correct corresponding serial number but there are a couple of anomalies:

 expectedactualshift
31724 [ ] I-0 II-A(inverted) II-O +1
85502 [ ] IV-O A-III(inverted) III-O -1

 

C/Y notes are also known with a dot in Aguirre's signatures. Since these have higher serial numbers/control letters they can be seen as a correction of the original counterfeit Type 5 and are listed as possible counterfeit Type 9.

Counterfeit $5 Ejército Constitucionalista Type 6

 Ejercito 5 B 744307

Ejercito 5 B 744307 reverse

A notice of February 1915, reiterated in Nuevo León in June 1915, lists the following characteristics.

GENUINECOUNTERFEIT
background colour is strong background colour is ordinary
the centre vignette has perfect chiaroscuro less chiaroscuro, mountains appear to have more snow, reflection of snow on water is coarser
(La viñeta es subida en su color negro; los números cinco no son claros. tienen unos adornos interiores en color negro) these details are weak

EC5count6g

‘que la Tesorería ... pagará de acuerdo’

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'que la Tesorería ... pagará de acuerdi’

Secretaría seal is perfectly legible Secretaría seal is illegible
serial numbers are an intense red numbers are a less intense red

 

This counterfeit was reported in September 1914 to have flooded Brownsville, Matamoros and many northeastern Mexico towns. It was stated that the fake note was easily distinguishable from the good, being badly printed from an imperfect plate. Thousands had 'acuerdo' misspelled, but newer issues showed this error to have been correctedSan Antonio Express, 6 September 1914 and 14 September 1914.

Known examples have the control letters A-XL XL-O and A-XLIV XLIV-O but with incorrect serial numbers.

 expectedactualshift
971063 A-XLVIII XLVIII-O A-XL XL-O -8
744307 A-XXXVII XXXVII-O A-XLIV XLIV-O +7

Counterfeit $5 Ejército Constitucionalista Type 6a

As the newspaper reported that the misspelling 'acuerdi' was correctedSan Antonio Express, 6 September 1914 and 14 September 1914 we can perhaps expect a variant.

Counterfeit $5 Ejército Constitucionalista Type 7

Another notice from early 1915 listed another type of forgery.

GENUINECOUNTERFEIT
  made from photogravure, so impression of all the letters, particularly on the face, is extremely crude (sumamente burda)
the background to 'EJÉRCITO CONSTITUCIONALISTA DE MÉXICO' is a fine hatching background is a (una pasta porosa)
  the snow on the volcanoes and the reflection cast on the water form a rough pattern of white spots (forma un conjunto tosco de tono blanquisco á manchas)
the eagle has clear, dark details the eagle, and the feathers of its wings, are not so detailed
  On the reverse, the seal of the Secretaría de Hacienda is blurred (borroso) and illegible