Signatures on Banco Nacional de México notes
Consejero
The Banco Nacional de México notes carried two symbols, where it states SERIE, which were really controls.
On the left the letter corresponded to the initial of the branch from which the notes were issued, thus: M - Mérida, V - Veracruz, P - Puebla, G - Guadalajara, G2 - Guanajuato, CH - Chihuahua, M2 - México, M3 - Central en México, L - San Luis Potosí, O - Oaxaca and M4 - Monterrey.
On the right a capital letter, either alone or with a number, indicated which consejero (board member) signed the notes.
So combinations of codes fall into the hundred or even thousands: there are around 400 combinations for the $5 note alone.
This system seems to have broken down during the revolution.
Letter | Consejero | date range | |
A | Bénito Arena Bermejillo | 1885 - 1890 | ![]() |
A | Carlos Arellano | 1911 - 1913 | ![]() |
B |
A prosperous merchant, he married Maria Dolores Martinez Negrete y Alba, who inherited 12,319 hectares of estates in El Salto, Jalisco. |
1885 - 1902 | ![]() |
B | ![]() José María Roa Bárcena was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, on 3 September 1827 and moved to Mexico City in 1853. During these tumultuous times, he joined the Conservative Party, of which he was a distinguished champion and defender in the press, a supporter of the Empire and a member of the Junta de Notables who went to offer the crown to Maximilian. However, unhappy with his actions and inspired by the ideas of liberalism, he refused to cooperate in Maximilian’s administration. At the fall of the short-lived Empire, he suffered two years in prison, and then, on regaining his freedom, left politics and devoted himself to business and literature. He was a historian, novelist, literary critic, journalist and poet, leaving behind a vast opus. He died in Mexico City on 21 September 1908. |
1905 - 1906 | ![]() |
B | Eduardo N. Brown | 1911 - 1913 | ![]() |
C | ![]() Félix de las Cuevas González , better known as Félix Cuevas, was born in Aniezo, Cantabria, Spain in 16 December 1830. In 1847, at the age of 17, he decided to seek his fortune in Mexico. Although the country was suffering from the effects of its war with the United States, the young Cuevas found a way to take advantage of the situation and make a good future. As someone with a good head for numbers, he generated trust among the members of Mexico's important families, who applied for his services as administrator, especially when, in the face of the country's instability, they chose to go abroad, leaving their assets in the country. After a few years he decided to explore the world of finance, investing in shares that over the years generated outstanding yields. In 1864 he invested in the Banco de Londres, México y Sud-América and in 1881 decided to invest much of his fortune in shares of Banco Nacional Mexicano, thus obtaining 20% of the capital of this new bank. He was a director of the Banco Nacional de México until 1910, when he resigned because of his ailing health. Cuevas also invested in other sectors such as transport, and participated in mining, electrical and railway companies. He was president of Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México and the Compañía Real del Monte y Pachuca, then the most important mining company in the country. Later, in 1890 he founded the Cámara Española de Comercio (Spanish Chamber of Commerce), which promoted and improved trade between Spain and Mexico. Although Félix Cuevas had a major impact on Mexico's financial and industrial sector, his main contribution was humanitarian. He sought to make life easier for Spanish migrants, combating health problems, unemployment, homelessness and resources and did so through the Sociedad Española de Beneficencia (Spanish Charity Society). While his main objective was the protection of the underdogs, he also supported the elderly and culture. He founded the Casino Español, a place in the Avenida Isabel la Católica, in the centre of Mexico city, where Spaniards could meet and relax. He died in Mexico City on 31 March 1918, leaving a considerable part of his fortune to acquire properties to be used to provide free board to the homeless. |
1885 - 1897 | ![]() |
D | Francisco Cortina é Icaza | 1886 - 1897 | ![]() |
D |
Maurice Armand Delille |
1911 - 1912 | ![]() |
E | Antonio Escandón y Estrada | 1885 - 1890 | ![]() |
E | José G. Escandón | 1901 - 1902 | ![]() |
E |
He was a career soldier and became a brigadier general and Porfirio Díaz; Jefe de Estado Mayor. He was a deputy for Guanajuato from 1894 until 1912 and was governor of Morelos from 15 March 1909 until May 1911, but abandoned the governorship and went to the United States on Díaz’ resignation. He came back to support Huerta but on his defeat, returned to exile. He came back after 1920 and died in Mexico City on 31 March 1926. |
1906, 1909, 1910 | ![]() |
E | Luis Elguero was a “senator, capitalist, politician, lawyer of note”SD papers, 812.00, 11914. He was chair of the board of directors of the Ferrocarriles Nacionales (National Railways). As a distinguished jurist he was part of Huerta’s peace delegation to the United States in 1914. | 1908, 1911 - 1913 | ![]() |
F |
Genaro de la Fuente Genaro de la Fuente was director of the Negociación Minera de Sauceda in Zacatecas La Iberia, 17 April 1874. |
1885 | |
F | Carlos Friederichs | 1909 - 1913 | ![]() |
G | José Gargollo was a Spaniard, a director of Diligencias Generales and member of the Convención Española | 1885 - 1897 | ![]() |
G | Agustín García | 1902 - 1912 | ![]() |
H | Manuel Romano Gavito | 1905 - 1908 | ![]() |
H | The older Hugo Scherer probably came to Mexico in 1869 as part of a wave of German industrialists from Hamburg and Bremen and worked at first in the mining industry. With Hugo Scherer Pino (Hugo Scherer Jr.) (his cousin and brother-in-law) he founded Hugo Scherer y Compañía (finance) and then moved on to manufacturing with shares in the Compañía Industrial Manufacturera (cotton), the Compañía Compresora de Algodón in Torreón, El Buen Tono (cigars) and the Compañía Nacional Mexicana de Dinamita y Explosivos y de la Fundidora Monterrey.
Hugo Scherer, Jr. (cousin of Hugo Sr. and younger brother of his wife) was the director of Hugo Scherer y Compañía and on the board of the Compañía Maderera de la Sierra de Durango (land and timber), the Compañía Minera Dos Estrellas,the Agujita (coal), the Transportes de Guadalajara (trams), Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México and the Banco Internacional Hipotecario. Thanks to his international banking contacts he was director of the Société Financière pour l’industrie au Mexique and in charge of the Caja de Préstamos para Obras de Irrigación y Fomento de la Agricultura, which made a fifty million pesos bond issue in 1908. Thanks to his connections to José Yves Limantour he was also a member of the Comisión de Cambios y Monedas, which determined monetary policy and the exchange rate. |
1910 | ![]() |
J |
José A. Signoret José A. Signoret was the fifth Presidente of the Consejo de Administración from June 1915 until 1934. |
1909 - 1913 | ![]() |
K |
He was alternate senator from Jalisco (1888-1894, 1896-1898), deputy from Guanajuato (1894 – 1898) and senator from the Federal District (1900-1914). Camacho was the fourth Presidente of the Consejo de Administración from from May 1904 until 1914. |
1890 - 1913 | ![]() |
L |
He died on 21 June 1908. |
1890 - 1908 | ![]() |
M |
On 29 October 1894 he was appointed Mexico’s envoy to France, a post he held until his death in Paris, France on 13 December 1899. His widow, Isabel Pesado, donated her husband’s library of 7,526 books to the Biblioteca Nacional de México. |
1885 | ![]() |
M | ![]() He was a federal deputy from the Federal District from 1892 through to 1912.o 1896, from Puebla 1896 to 1902 and from the Federal District 1902 to 1911. He died in exile in Madrid, Spain, on 25 December 1918. |
1902 - 1913 | ![]() |
N | Pedro Martín | 1885 - 1889 | ![]() |
N | Roberto Núñez Castañares was born on 1 December 1859 in Mexico City. He married Josefina Prida y Arteaga, the daughter of industrialist and banker Francisco Macario de Prida Palacios.
He was a member of the Mexico City council from 1886 to 1888, a federal deputy from the Federal District 1886 to 1896, from Puebla 1896 to 1902 and from the Federal District 1902 to 1911. A bureaucrat, he served as a judge, ambassador, Oficial Mayor of the Treasury 1893 to 1900 and Subsecretario from 1900 to 1904 and from 1905 to 1911. He accompanied Porfirio Díaz to exile in Paris in 1911, and died on 27 December 1912. |
1905 - 1911 | ![]() |
O |
|
1885 - 1902 | ![]() |
O | Ernesto Otto | 1908 - 1913 | ![]() |
P | Francisco M. de Prida, founder of Circulo Mercantil de Veracruz, was on the board of the Banco Mercantil Mexicano | 1885 - 1897 | ![]() |
P |
|
1908 - 1913 | ![]() |
Q | Pedro Peláez | 1887 - 1905 | ![]() |
R |
Gustavo Strück Strück died in February 1906. |
1885 - 1905 | ![]() |
R | Hugo Scherer, Jr. (see H above) |
1910 | ![]() |
S | León Stein | 1885 | ![]() |
S | ![]() |
1890 - 1906, 1910 | ![]() |
S | Hugo Scherer, Jr (see H above) | 1910 | ![]() |
T | Nicolás de Teresa came from Llanes, Asturias, Spain, and, together with Manuel Ibañez , was one of the principal drivers behind the Banco Mercantil Mexicano. He had his own successful banking house and subscribed for 2,000 shares in the Banco Mercantil Mexicano,. He married Dolores Miranda, the daughter of the Spanish vice-consul, and his son, José de Teresa Miranda married the daughter of Manuel Romero Rubio (above). | 1885 - 1890 | ![]() |
V | ![]() José V. de Collado was born in Santander, Spain on 14 February 1831. As a young man he went to Mexico with his wife and two sons. He was a shareholder and manager of the Casa de Diligencias, then Director of the Banco Mercantil Mexicano, and finally director of the Banco Nacional de México for eleven years. He then was involved in various businesses, principally in agriculture. As well as a consejero of the Banco Nacional de México, he was a consejero of Buen Tono, the Compañía de Seguros “La Mexicana”, of the Banco Hipotecario and of various mining companies. As a philanthropist Collardo was a founder of the Asilo de Mendigos in 1879, was an active member of the Conferencia de San Vicente de Paul and various Catholic societies and was president of the Casino Española and the Sociedad Española de Beneficencia. Apparently he was probably the only landlord in Mexico City who never raised his rents. He became ill in January 1901 and died of pneumonia on 21 November 1901Semanario Literario Ilustrado de “El Tiempo”, Tomo I, Núm. 49, 2 December 1901. |
1885 - | |
W |
He began his career as an employee in the firm of Antonio Escandón but soon established firm links to the Zaldo family, which operated out of Veracruz and specialised in both textiles and tobacco production and imports. Basagoiti early on set up a textile factory in the provincial capital of Xalapa. Years later he moved to Mexico City where he set up the merchant banking firm of Basagoiti/Zaldo. His prestige in the Spanish merchant colony in Mexico, helped his business as he generated much confidence in clients. By moving from merchant and importer to financier, Basagoiti was able to consolidate his networks of contacts and correspondents and clients. But Basagoiti also began to diversify his investments, particularly in the new banking institutions in the capital and provinces (Banco Nacional de México, Banco de Londres y México, Banco Oriental in Puebla and BancoMercantil de Veracruz, among others.) In the first place he discounted bills or letters of exchange issued by a multitude of merchants. This allowed him to build up a very broad network of clients and correspondents and facilitated a great variety of local and trade operations. In the second place he became a specialist in the discount of bills of exchange on other cities and ports abroad, particularly those in Cuba and Spain. In the third place he began directly to lend money in short, medium and long term credits to merchants, industrialists and landowners. In the fourth place, he helped manage the fortunes and business of other Spanish entrepreneurs, some of whom had returned to Spain. He married the daughter of one of the wealthiest Spanish merchant bankers, Manuel Ibañez, who had developed the business of remittances to Spain. Basagoiti not only developed his merchant and financial business, but also became a prime leader in the early industrialization of Mexico. He set up tobacco and textile firms, but most important was his participation as 25% owner of the first steel firm in Mexico and Latin America, Fundidora de Monterrey, which began operations in 1900 and was run by Asturian managers for over eighty years. Basagoiti´s experience in business in Mexico was key in facilitating his reinvestment of profits in Spain in a field he knew well, that of banking, and allowed him to create the Banco Hispano Americano in Madrid in 1901 with capital from Mexico and Cuba. |
1890 - 1902 | ![]() |
W | Luis Elguero (see E above) | 1909 - 1910, 1912 | ![]() |
Y | Manuel Ibáñez | 1885 | ![]() |
Z | Juan José Martínez Zorrilla was on the board of the Banco Mercantil Mexicano | 1885 - 1889 | ![]() |
Z | Julio M. Limantour | 1896 - 1909 | ![]() |
Z | Eusebio González[identification needed] | 1912 - 1913 | ![]() |
He trained as a lawyer and so later served as the abogado of the bank. He was subsecretario de Gobernación from 1906 until 1911 and, for want of a Secretario de Gobernación, in charge of the department at the start of the revolution. Macedo went on to be a successful financier. He founded the Banco del País, S.A., the Banco Hipotecario Reforma, S.A., La Continental, Seguros, S.A., Almacenes del País, S.A., and from 1943 to 1951 was president of the Latinoamericana life insurance company and responsible for the building of the Torre Latinoamericana. He died in Los Angeles on 26 September 1959. |
1913 | ![]() |
|
V [ ][identification needed] | 1913 | ![]() |
|
Gabriel Mancera |
Interventor
Cajero
Cajero | date range | |
Ramón Usandizaga | 1885 - 1896 | ![]() |
Manuel Pereda Pereda was then a director of the bank, from 1901 until 1908. |
1897 - 1901 | ![]() |
Joaquin Salas A. | 1902 - 1910 | ![]() |
Luis Uhink | 1911 - 1915 | ![]() |