La Negociación Minera Hacienda Grande, Purísima y Minas de Guadalupe y Anexas

1914 issue

On 24 January 1914 some of the principal merchants of Pachuca called upon the mining companies and asked them to issue script as had been done elsewhere. They explained that their sales had been cut very heavily through lack of change and that they would not only welcome mining companies’ paper but would help in any way we could suggest. All the mining companies had been experiencing great difficulties in obtaining change for payrolls, so a meeting of the eight principal companies decided, having obtained the governor’s approval, to issue a series of notes in a common format. La Negociación Minera Hacienda Grande, Purísima y Minas de Guadalupe y Anexas undertook to issue $2,000 in the first tranche^{AHMM, Fondo Norteamericano, vol. 41, exp. 15, Dirección General, Correspondencia, Mar 1913 – Nov 1914}.

These notes were printed by the American Book and Printing Company, of Mexico City. The company had had little experience with this type of work and was under time pressure, working twenty four hours a day to complete the orders^{The Mexican Herald, 9 February 1914}, and the result were disappointing.

The Purisima notes were in four denominations (5c, 10c, 50c and $1)

They had the printed signature of Luis García Granados and were signed by Manuel Ordóñez as Administrador.

Luis García Granados
Manuel Ordóñez

A further issue

The notes of the first issue were probably withdrawn, or lost acceptability, when counterfeits appeared of some notes. This is probably the reason for a couple of low value notes (5c, 10c and 20c), produced by Bouligny & Schmidt, of Mexico City, dated 10 July 1914. Known notes are datestamped September and November 1914 on the reverse.

These were based on issues that Bouligny & Schmidt had already produced for the El Oro Mining & Railway Co. and The Mexican Mines of El Oro Limited, in the adjoining Estado de México. They were signed by S. Camacho for the board (Junta Directiva) and redeemable in multiples of five pesos (en esta población a la presentación de este en union de otros vales que sumen CINCO PESOS ó cantidad multiple de CINCO PESOS ).

Sebastián Camacho was born in Jalapa, Veracruz in 1823. His father was a distinguished diplomat, governor and statesman who accumulated a large fortune in business with Angel Lerdo de Tejada. Sebastián gained a civil engineering degree from the National School of Mines. He was involved in the Compañía Limitada del Ferrocarril Mexicano and received concessions to develop several railway lines, was president or director of various mining companies and mints, president of the Banco Nacional de México from 1904 until 1914, vicepresident of the Banco Hipotecario, and vicepresident of the Compañía del Cable Mexicano (The Méxican Telegraph Company) and the Compañía del Cable del Norte y Sud-América. He was the publisher of La Libertad. He was alternate senator from Jalisco (1888-1894, 1896-1898), deputy from Guanajuato (1894 – 1898) and senator from the Federal District (1900-1914).

Cheques

The company also produced bearer cheques for $1, $5 and $5 dated from March to June 1915.

These were produced by the local printers, Tipografía El Buen Tono, of Pachuca. They were signed by Luis García Granados as Cajero and Eligio Ramírez or Manuel Ordóñez as Director y Administrador.

Luis García Granados
Eligio Ramírez Gutiérrez was a prominent supporter of Madero and after Aquiles Serdan’s uprising in Puebla, he and some others were arrested by Mayor Acosta, of the Inspección General de Policía of the Federal District. Compromising papers were found and the prisoners were sent to Mexico CityEl Tiempo, 21 November 1910 and accused of sedition and conspiracyEl Tiempo, Año XXVIII, Núm. 9020, 28 November 1910. A month later they were released on bond as it was decided that their culpability was minimal or nonexistantThe Mexican Herald, 22 December 1910; El Imparcial, 22 December 1910.
Manuel Ordóñez