$10 notes of the Banco Mercantil de Veracruz

First design

Counterfeits

Counterfeit $10 notes appeared in August 1901^{La Gaceta Comercial, 26 August 1901}. One was presented to the American Bank, in the calle de Gante, by a Alfred McColsson and refused. McColsson then had an employee try to encash the note for a second time, as a joke, and this led to a police investigation^{La Patria de México, Año XXV, Núm. 7430, 27 August 1901}.

The note was a poor imitation but could pass at first sight. The impression was blurred (borrosa) and the paper thinner (el papel pergamino es de menor consistencia y cuerpo, que el usado en los buenos)^ibid.. On 29 August Alberto Montiel and Nesto Rivera, two experts appointed by the Oficina impresora de Estampillas, reported that the note from the American Bank was a rough (tosca) imitation^{El Popular, Año V, 30 August 1901}.

The previous day the bank’s interventor, José Mirón y Mosquera, had reported to the Secretaría de Hacienda that the bank had received six such notes since May, believed that they had been produced in Puebla, and had decided quietly to withdraw their $10 notes. When they had recalled them all they would ask for permission to incinerate them and launch a new issue^{CEHM, Fondo CDLIV Colección José Y. Limantour, 2a. 1901, carpeta 11, legajo 24207}. By 2 September the bank had several thousand pesos in such notes in its strongroom^{CEHM, Fondo CDLIV Colección José Y. Limantour, 2a. 1901, carpeta 11, legajo 24209 letter Mirón y Mosquera to Limantour, 12 September 1901}.

Strangely, it was not until 25 March 1903 that Limantour finally gave his permission for the new issue to replace the notes that had been destroyed. By that time the bank was suffering from the lack of notes^{CEHM, Fondo CDLIV Colección José Y. Limantour, 2a. 1903, carpeta 9, legajo 65 letters Mirón y Mosquera to Limantour, 26 March 1901 and Limantour to Mirón y Mosquera, 31 March 1901}.

Second design

The number range for each series is based on the listings in the book recording incinerations^{AGN, SC224 Antiguos Bancos de Emisión, caja 415, libro 854}.