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Advertisements on Chihuahua notes - Introduction

Worthless revolutionary currency was also used to carry advertisements and other messages, especially for banks and for establishments just over the Mexican border.

These were both legitimate notes and counterfeits: in fact the latter are over-represented in these items.

The first mention seems to be in a Culiacán, Sinaloa, news item from October 1915. It reports that advertisers were buying Villista currency in bulk and that recently travellers from the United States had brought some such notes, including a $10 Central Café notePeriódico Oficial, Sinaloa, Volume VI, No. 99, 14 October 1915. At the beginning of December 1915 it was reported that Villa currency was rising in value because of the the heavy demand from souvenir dealers in the east. Large purchases of the currency had been made by the El Paso Chamber of Commerce for advertising purposes and one eastern dealer has bought $50,000 worth as souvenirsTucson Daily Citizen, 4 December 1915.