$10 Banco Minero note (1888-1912)

The $10 notes have a vignette of Justice and a view of the first Chihuahua branch on the face and a scene named 'Cattle on the Road (No 789)’ on the reverse.

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On 22 March 1910 the bank placed an order for $100,000 in $5.00 and $100,000 in $10.00 notes^{ABNC letter, Juan A. Creel to ABNC, 22 March 1910}. On 6 April they wrote to suspend the order, as they had decided to commemorate the first centennial of Mexican independence with a special issue. A memorandum specified that, if the ABNC had not already started printing, “it is our desire that the five and ten pesos notes which you are engraving at present, be made exactly as they are on the face, while on the back of the note to be divided in three equal parts, having the National colors: green, white and red, and in the middle of the back of the notes, or on the white space, which will be on the center, the engraving of Sun and Liberty Cap, such as used in the reverse of the Mexican silver peso, with the inscription on top of the circle reading “PRIMER CENTENARIO DE LA INDEPENDENCIA MEXICANA”, and on the same circle below the numbers “1910”. … As in our opinion the plain colors of green and red will not look well, you may place underneath each of them an interwoven, some kind of a back-ground, such as used in our $1,000.00 peso notes, without disturbing the effect of the said colors^{ABNC letter 6 April 1910}”. On 20 April the ABNC sent models of the two backs, stating “If you so desire, we can print in the centre where the Cap of Liberty is shown, an underlying tint, which we could arrange to have made as light as possible, so as not to destroy the effect of the National colors. We would have liked to make up more artistic models than the ones we are sending you, but as the three colors have to be very distinct, they could not very well be arranged in a different manner"^{ABNC, letter 20 April 1910}. The bank replied that the design was correct but the green and red colours were not satisfactory “inasmuch as they are not the National colors of México, specially the red which is more or less a sort of orange tint instead of red, and with the object of avoiding any misunderstanding, we are returning by registered mail the models and sample of the National colors of México, and it is our belief that you can very easily adopt them. The green is more or less what we want, but would like to have you match as near as possible to the sample, and unless you can supply the red as it is given on the sample, we would not care to have you proceed with the order, in which event please telegraph to us that we may given you further instructions”^{ABNC, telegram and letter bank to ABNC, 26 April 1910}.

On 4 May the ABNC sent an exact proof of the colour on bank note paper that they proposed to use. “As you will note, we have improved very much on the green and red. This red is as near as we can come to the specimen sent us. Physically speaking, it is impossible for us to improve on the red, - the printing being done by lithography, and we trust that the same will be satisfactory to you”^{ABNC, letter, 4 May 1910}. The bank approved, and the ABNC was able to ship the notes on 20 June, in time for the celebrations.