The crisis of 1943

In 1943, during the Second World War, Mexico was again faced with a silver crisis (there was a combination of reasons: anticipation of a rise in the price of silver; the Mexican government’s agreement to sell practically its entire silver production to the United States for its military industry; and a boom in the Mexican and US jewellery industries). On 21 August it imposed a heavy export tax on silver products, to make it unprofitable to melt down silver coins to ship as bullion, and temporarily suspended a contract which promised all surplus silver production to the United States. However because of a shortage of fractional coinage, especially the fifty centavos denomination, it was compelled to authorise banks to issue cheques with printed denominations of twenty-five and fifty centavos. All these issues were quickly withdrawn.

In Aguascalientes the Cámara Nacional de Comercio issued a 50c cheque drawn on the Banco Mercantil del Bajio, S. A., dated 1 September. It was signed by [   ] and [   ].