20 Pesos

Banco de México turned to the American Bank Note Company for much of its mid-century production, and this series reflects the wartime constraints of that relationship. Mexico remained officially neutral through most of World War II, but dollar shortages and disrupted trade created real pressure on domestic money supply, pushing the bank to issue more paper across a wider range of denominations than it might otherwise have needed.

The ABNCo printing contract gave these notes a finish and intaglio quality noticeably superior to contemporaneous issues from other Latin American central banks working with lesser printers during the same period.