The revolution in Guanajuato

On 5 August 1914 governor and military commander Pablo A. de la Garza issued instructions^{[text needed]} on the acceptance of banknotes, in order to regularise their circulation. In a notice on 21 August he  distinguished between banknotes issued before and after Huerta's coup d'etat and listed the issues in forced circulation.

In Guanajuato in March 1915 the only money in circulation were the Constitucionalista issues, Villista issues and that issued by Gertrudis Sánchez when he was governor of Michoacán^{Prensa, 25 March 1915}.

On 20 March 1915 the Administración Principal de Rentas of Guanajuato received instructions that notes issued by Villa were to cease circulating, and by the same evening they were being refused. The next day there was panic, as the notes could only be changed in Chihuahua itself, and on 22 March further instructions told them to continue accepting them and reestablished a semblance of peace^{Crispín Espinosa, Efemerdides Guanajuetenses, Guanajuato, 1920}.

The Villistas abandoned Guanajuato during the night of 18 April 1915 and the next day businesses began to refuse to accept their notes. Since these were widespread there was public panic, mainly among the poorer classes, and the next day the Presidente Municipal, J. Paz López, issued notices^{[text needed]}  that they were to be accepted, under penalty of a fine^ibid. to no avail. The Carrancistas led by General Alejo G. González arrived on 25 April, followed by Obregón himself on 28 April. Obregón immediately nullified all Villista paper money^{[text needed]Crispín Espinosa, Efemerides Guanajuatenses, Guanajuato, 1920}.

On 29 May a new attack by Villa on Guanajuato renewed the lack of confidence in Carranza’s paper and holders tried to change it for some other form^ibid.. So, on 1 June, the Oficina de Timbre of the capital issued a notice^{[text needed]} announcing which notes should circulate and which not, listing the issues of forced circulation^{ibid., p 274}.

The Villista general Panfilo Natera recaptured the town on 6 June but wisely declared that all notes, whether Villista or Carrancista, would be of forced circulation and acceptance at par. The Villistas only held the town for six days.

On 24 June the returned governor, José Siurob, put in progress the withdrawal of the Monclova and Durango issues, ordered by Carranza on 8 December 1914^{ibid, p. 277}. When Carrancista troops arrived in the city of Guanajuato on 9 July they forced the circulation of notes from Michoacán as well as all those signed by Alvaro Obregón, as these were the ones that they possessed^{ibid., p 284}, despite no authority from Carranza.

On 19 August Siurob published a decree invalidating the revalidados altos^{ASalvatierra, caja 1915}. On 23 September Siurob sent Carranza the draft of a decree that he was proposing to address the difficulties around the acceptance of Constitutionalist issues^{CEHM, Fondo XXI Venustiano Carranza, carpeta 52, legajo 5800}. This stated that the payment in all contracts whatsoever could be satisfied with notes of legal circulation.

Thereafter, most of the correspondence was about the validity of Carrancista issues.

In a telegram to the Presidente Municipal of Guanajuato, dated 28 December, the Secretaria de Hacienda reported that Veracruz and Ejército Constitucionalista notes were being restamped in Veracruz and Mexico but were of forced circulation, even if they lacked the resello.

On 10 January 1916 the Presidente Municipal of Salvatierra, Guanajuato, published a circular reminding people that according to Carranza's circular núm. 48 that though Ejército Constitucionalisa notes were being revalidated in Veracruz and Mexico City they were still of forced circulation even if they lacked a resello^{ASalvatierra, caja 1915}. On 28 January Salvatierra was told that notes (billetes de reberso colorados) were of forced circulation^{ASalvatirrea, caja 1915 telegram José Siurob, Guanajuato, to Presidente Municipal, Salvatierra 28 January 1916}.

On 12 February Salvatierra was told that Díeguez notes were of forced circulation^{ASalvatirrea, caja 1915 telegram José Siurob, Guanajuato, to Héctor E. Huacuja, Presidente Municipal, Salvatierra12 February 1916}. On 17 February Salvatierra was told in response to a query that the state government had no notice that the ‘C’ notes (of the Ejército Constitucionalista issue) were counterfeit^{ASalvatierra, caja 1915 telegram Joaquín Silva, Guanajuato, to Presidente Municipal, Salvatierra17 February 1916}.

On 26 February Salvatierra was told that Oficinas Recaudadoras had been told not to accept notes (billetes de resello rojo) as businesses were refusing to accept them but in turn using them to pay their taxes^{ASalvatierra, caja 1915 telegram José López Lira, Guanajuato, to Presidente Municipal, Salvatierra, 26 February 1916}. Did this refer to the Veracruz resello that was known to have been counterfeited?

On 4 March 1916 the government reiterated the paragraph in circular núm. 48 that notes that lacked resellos were still forced^{Periódico Oficial, Guanjuato , 9 March 1916}. Salvatierra relayed the information in its own circular on 28 March^{ASalvatierra, Municipal, caja 1915}. There was a similar disposition about unrevalidated notes in Léon on 17 March 1916.

On 21 March 1916 Oficial Mayor Juan Araujo, noting that businesses and the public were refusing to accept Constitutionalista and Gobierno Provisional notes with red and blue backs that had not been revalidated instructed the various offices of the Administración General de Rentas to take them as being of forced circulation, thus derogating his disposition of 12 February^ibid.. This was acknowledged by the Administración Subalterna del Timbre in Salvatierra on 28 March^ibid. and copied to the Presidente Municipal^ibid..

On 23 March the Presidente Municipal of Tarimoro reported that people were refusing to accept Veracruz notes of five pesos or greater, even if they were revalidated^{ASalvatierra, Municipal, caja 1915 C. Paredas, Tarimoro to Presidente, Municipal, Salvatierra, 23 March 1916}. On 29 March Salvatierra sent him a copy of their recent circular.

On 13 April 1916 the Jefe de Hacienda in Guanajuato noted that businesses were refusing to accept Gobierno Provisional notes that lacked the resello of the local Jefatura de Hacienda. In fact these notes did not need the resello, and any that had been so revalidated had been in error, when they were presented along with other notes^{ASalvatierra, Municipal, caja 1915}.

On May 10 the infalsificables of $5 to $100 (from the American Bank Note Company) were put into circulation, and on 1 June the $1 value (from the Oficina Impresora de México) and cartones for 5c, 10c and 20c. However, the general population and businesses preferred silver and copper coins, and those tradesmen that brought the basic necessities into the city refused to accept the infalsificables and demanded payment in coin. When merchants in Guanajuato began to refuse the infalsificables, the Presidente Municipal applied demeaning penalties such as forcing them to sweep the main streets of the city, a sanction from which the merchants Julián Valencia, Enrique Anguiano and J. Natividad Chalico, among others, did not escape^{Crispín Espinosa, Efemérides Guanajuatenses, 1917, p. 350}. Others were subject to fines of $100 to $500 or from ten to thirty days arrest^{ibid., p. 351}.

The depreciation of the infalsificables reached such an extreme that on 4 November Siurob ordered that government employees be paid their salaries in oro nacional. Sixteen days later, the state government decreed that from 20 November 20 all taxes and contributions should be paid at least 50% in silver and oro nacional and the rest in infalsificables, fixing a parity of $50 in notes for each peso of silver. Later. On 1 December, the parity increased to $100 in notes for one of silver. By 11 December the rate was $150 to $1.