Maximiliano Damm

Maximiliano Damm was a German citizen who was born in Magdeburg, Prussia on 21 November 1830. He arrived in Durango in 1850, at the age of twenty, and became one of the state’s leading entrepreneurs, mainly through his development of the fabulously wealthy Promontorio silver mine. He also owned the nearby hacienda San Francisco Javier de Lajas, the rancho San Antonio, the rancho Melchor and the mines of of Gavilanes and El Pino, Tepehuanes.

In 1858 his family bought the Palace of the Conde del Valle de Suchil, built during the second half of the eighteenth century by Pedro de Huertas, and kept the building intact till 1928, using it as their residence and store^{It later had several uses, including as a famous commercial store, until it was finally acquired by the Banco Nacional de México in 1985, restored for the first time in 1988, and is currently a Banamex House of Culture (http://fomentoculturalbanamex.org/casasdeculturabanamex/palaciodesuchil/)}.

His company issued a series of vales al portador (25c, 50c, $1 and $10^{[image needed]}) redeemable in silver on presentation.

The only known $10 note has an 1883-1884 blue 1c revenue stamp on the reverse and a stamped purple seal with date Mar 12, 1884.

Maximiliano retired to Rudolstadt, Germany, where he died on 8 December 1898^{The Mexican Herald, Vol. VII. No. 111, 20 December 1898}.