Mexican Coins

Mexican coins have a long and powerful history as one of the most popularly traded currencies in the world, and the most traded currency in Latin America. Originally based on the idea of Spain's silver dollars (pieces of eight) the name peso literally means weight. Silver mines in Mexico provide an abundant supply of silver to the coin mints and other industries. The pure silver that made up the Mexican peso was very heavy in weight, hence the origin of the name.

Setting a precedent

The Mexican peso was the first to introduce a border around the coins to prevent people from filing the edges and keeping the valuable metal for reuse. Because of the value of silver and gold, coins were regularly filed down at the edges but the practice of including a patterned border meant that people were unable to do this without being discovered. This meant that the early Mexican peso was one of the very first coins to have an exact weight, and this coupled with the purity and quality of the silver made Mexican coins highly sought after. So popular, in fact, that in 1785 it became the sole currency of the whole of North America and was the foundation for the American currency with an initial rate of 1 peso being equal to 1 dollar.

Mexican coins around the world

Popular throughout the world, Mexican coins were very widely accepted. In the USA they were used until 1857 but in Canada they were still considered legal tender for another year. The Mexican exchange remained very strong until the 1980s, when Mexico witnessed years of high inflation and only with the forming of Pacto in 1989 did this calm. Since then the Peso has gained in stature once again and is now one of the top 15 most traded currencies in the world and the most traded currency in Latin America.

New pesos

In 1993 new Mexican coins were created called the new peso which replaced the peso. 1 new peso was equivalent in value to 1000 old pesos and in 1996 new peso simply became peso again. All new Mexican coins draw their design from Mexico's Aztec heritage and this can be seen on the entire range of coins. Coins are available in 10, 20 and 50 centavo denominations as well as 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 peso coins. The 20 and 50 peso coins lack the popularity of the rest of the coins, however, and are rarely seen.

Collecting Mexican coins

Mexican coins, both new and old, are highly sought after. Old Mexican coins remain popular because of their incredible, high quality silver content. Because they were so widely used across areas of the world it can sometimes prove difficult to find coins that don't bear extra markings (for example, coins used in China will bear the Chop of China) but on the other hand it gives the collector a very broad scope of Mexican coins they can collect.

Mexican coin collectibles

There are a large number of Mexican coins that have been created solely for collecting, and are therefore not in circulation. A lot of these coins have been produced since the 1990s and are very popular because of their unusual and striking design coupled with the value of Mexican silver. Commemorative style coins have been created in honor of the Aztecs, Maya, Olmec, Teotihuacan, Toltec and Totanac people. All these coins are made of the finest silver and come in various sizes and shapes that you wouldn't ordinarily associate with coins. These are the perfect place to start a collection of Mexican coins and because the Libertad and other coins have no actual face value they are a definite investment opportunity as well as a good looking historical collection.