Ignacio López Rayón’s proposed paper currency
Ignacio López Rayón was born on 31 July 31 1773, in the town of Tlalpujahua, Michoacán. Educated as a lawyer, during the War for Independence he served as Miguel Hidalgo’s chief of staff until Hidalgo’s capture. The Insurgent loss at the battle of Calderón Bridge on 17 January 1811 demonstrated to Rayón that large numbers of poorly armed and untrained men were not enough to defeat the Royalists. In this battle near Guadalajara, 6,000 royalist soldiers routed nearly 100,000 Insurgents, an early turning point in the war. Rayón recognized that an organized movement, with a professionally trained army, was needed to achieve independence. General Rayón would serve as the official head of the insurgency, as President of the Supreme Junta of the National Government from 1811 until the September 1813 Congress of Chilpancingo. Throughout his tenure, Rayón focused his efforts on uniting the Insurgents, establishing a functioning government and publishing a coherent narrative of the revolution.
The Insurgents produced their own coinage but, because of the shortage of small change and the difficulty in acquiring the dies to mint coins, on 15 August 1812 Rayón published a decree [text needed] authorising the provisional issue of paper currency in the three denominations of half real, one real and two reales. They were to have contraseñas to prevent counterfeiting and people who refused to accept them, hid their goods, altered their prices or took these vales at a discount were to be punishedPara ocurrir a los perjuicios que experimentan las tropas y el vecindario por la escasez de numerario menudo, se publicó un bando para que circulasen provisionalmente unas monedas vales, de medios, reales y dos reales, impresas en papel, con sus respectivas contraseñas, para que no puedan ser falseadas, hasta que se concluyan los cuños que se están abriendo para sellar las de metal; y para que produjese toda su utilidad esta providencia benéfica, se mandó observar, so pena de ser castigados como traidores a todos los que se nieguen a recibirlas, oculten los efectos, alteren los precios de éstos, o reciban los vales por menos de su valor, a cuyo fin se han comisionado sujetos de probidad que celen su exacto cumplimiento. (Diario de gobierno y operaciones militares de la secretaría y ejército al mando del excelentísimo señor presidente de la suprema junta y ministro universal de la nación, licenciado don Ignacio López Rayón, 15 August 1812).
None of these notes are known to have survived.
Rayón surrendered to the Royalists on 7 January 1817 and was condemned to die. Fortunately, he survived and was released during a general pardon in 1820. Rayón went on to serve as the State Treasurer of San Luis Potosí. He died on 2 February 1832, at age 58, in Mexico City.