Banco Oriental de México cheques
The Banco Español Refaccionario in Puebla was the sixth of the mortgage banks (bancos refaccionarios) authorised by the 1897 Ley General de Instituciones de Crédito. Its founders were mainly shareholders in the local Banco Oriental de México and were granted their concession on 4 October 1911 with the bank capitalized at $2m ($1m paid). This network of Puebla businessmen had also been involved in establishing, on 17 May 1904, the finance firm of Descuento Español, S.A. with a capital of $3m and registered office in Mexico City. The Banco Español Refaccionario opened its head offices in Puebla (on the top floor of the Banco Oriental) and its first branch in Mexico City (in the premises of the Descuento Español at 2a calle de San Agustín no. 34) in January 1912.
As early as 4 January 1914 the Cámara Nacional de Comercio in Puebla held a meeting, attended by at least 80 members, to discuss the economic situation and decided (1) to send a telegram, followed by a letter, to the President and the Secretario de Hacienda asking for the notes of the state banks to be of forced circulation; and (2) to send a commission composed of Rafael Martínez Carrillo, José Rafael Iguaza, Victor Michael, Manuel Rivero Collada and José Mariano Talio, to support this motion and also to negotiate with the Secretaría de Hacienda for authorisation for the Banco Oriental to issue 50c and $1 notesEl Diario, Año VIII, Núm. 2,099, 5 January 1914.
In the first week of July 1914 to address the continuing shortage of small change, the Banco Oriental issued a series of cheques drawn on the Banco Español Refaccionario. The cheques would be exchanged for notes of the Banco Oriental in quantities of whole pesos. As the Banco Español Refaccionario was an associated company of the Banco Oriental, this was a means of the bank issuing fractional notes despite the provisions of the Ley General de Instituciones de Crédito.
| from | to | total number |
total value |
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| 5c | includes numbers 05164 to 99194CNBanxico #11913 | ||||
| 10c | 00001 | includes numbers 00565 and 54345CNBanxico #11914 | |||
| 20c | 00001 | includes number 00543CNBanxico #5913 and 74392CNBanxico #11915 | |||
| 50c | 0001 | includes numbers 0712CNBanxico #5914 and 0720CNBanxico #11916 |
The notes are datelined 1 July and carried the printed signatures of Miguel Quintana, the Manager (gerente), and Miguel Cesar, the Cajero El Imparcial, 7 July 1914.
| Miguel Quintana |  |
| Miguel Cesar |  |
The text stated that they were redeemable in sums of whole pesos for notes of the Banco Oriental.
Stores appeared to accept these cheques though the tram company at first refused, despite the fact that they were an improvement on that company’s own planillas that had been circulating as changeEl Imparcial, 9 July 1914. The tram company and some businesses were reluctant as the authorities had made no pronouncement about the cheques’ acceptabilityEl Sol, Núm. 37, 7 July 1914.