José Eligio Muñoz' issue of 1876

On 5 August 1876 the Porfirista Angel Trías appointed José Eligio Muñoz interim governor of the state^{Muñoz (1819-1891) was a lawyer and founder of various newspapers. He held a succession of offices such as Secretario de Gobierno, Deputy, Juez de Distrito, Jefe Político of Iturbide canton, and Magistrado fiscal of the Supreme Court}. Eight days later Muñoz authorised an issue of paper money, nominally guaranteed by the rebellion, to pay for the costs of war^{[text needed]}. The issue, put into circulation by the Jefatura de Hacienda, was in two denominations, five and fifty pesos, and achieved a total of 67,695 pesos. They are described as notes (billetes)^{El Guardia Nacional, 19 April 1877} or chits (vales) payable to bearer and drawn on the State Treasurer, to be accepted as legal tender in payment of any tax (al portador contra el Tesorero del Estado á ser recibidos como moneda corriente en pago de todo impuesto, sea de exportación, de importación, contribuciones y derechos municipales)^{El Guardia Nacional, 24 May 1877}.

Although the Porfiristas were ultimately victorious elsewhere in Mexico, they were defeated in Chihuahua and driven out of the state capital. The notes were then declared worthless and when the unissued remainders were stolen from the Juzgado de Distrito in April 1877, Muñoz declared them all null and void. The holders of the few notes still in circulation had eight days to present them to the Administracion General de Rentas, where, if they could prove their provenance, they would receive a certificado. The notes themselves would be cancelled^{El Guardia Nacional, 19 April 1877}.

Numbers

The original notes were:

Value	Carpeta	from	to	total number	total value
$5	1	1	250	250	$ 1,250
	2	251	500	250	1,250
	3	501	650	150	750
	4	651	900	250	1,250
	5	901	1150	250	1,250
	6	1151	1400	250	1,250
	7	1401	1650	250	1,250
	8	1651	1900	250	1,250
	9	1901	2150	250	1,250
	10	2151	2400	250	1,250
	11	2401	2650	250	1,250
	12	2651	2789	139	695
				2,789	13,945
$50	1	1	200	200	10,000
	2	201	400	200	10,000
	3	401	625	225	11,250
	4	626	850	225	11,250
	5	851	1075	225	11,250
				1,075	53,750
				3,864	$67,695

Juez de Distrito José Hierro received the following, which will have included the ones stolen:

Value	Carpeta	from	to	total number	total value
$5	6-12	1151	2789	1,639	$ 8,195
$50	2-5	386	1075	690	34,500
				2,329	$42,695

The Jefatura Política received the other $25,000 and issued $18,735 to Melchior de la Garza and $6,265 to other creditors. Of the latter, $4,160 was redeemed by certificados, viz.

Value	Carpeta	from	to	total number	total value
$5	2		321	1	$ 5
		324	334	11	55
		340	349	10	50
		357	363	7	35
			370	1	5
	3	546	563	18	90
			612	1	5
		646	650	5	25
		not detailed		48	240
				102	510
$50	1	1	11	11	550
		84	123	40	2,000
		148	168	21	1,050
		not detailed		1	50
				73	3,650
				175	$4,160

so $2,105 was outstanding^{El Guardia Nacional, 24 May 1877}.