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20 Pesos Pattern, Calendario Azteca, Uniface
| Issuer | Mexico |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Pesos (20 MXP) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse displays the Mexican national arms — the eagle displayed in left profile, perched upon a prickly pear cactus growing from a rock amid water, devouring a serpent — rendered in low relief within a beaded inner border. The legend ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS curves along the upper periphery in Latin characters, with the date 1917 positioned to the right of the eagle in the field. An olive and oak branch frames the base of the cactus device, consistent with the national arms design of the period. The overall composition is characteristic of early twentieth-century Mexican coinage engraving. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS 1917 |
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| Additional information |
Pattern coinage from the Mexican Revolution period occupies a strange bureaucratic limbo — the country had been tearing itself apart since 1910, with Carranza, Villa, Zapata, and Obregón each issuing their own emergency currency. By 1917, Carranza's Constitutionalist government was attempting to reassert monetary legitimacy following the promulgation of the new constitution in February of that year. Lead was used for pattern strikes precisely because it was cheap and the dies could be tested without committing silver or gold to pieces that might never reach production.
PL#140 designates this in the Pollock reference for Mexican patterns. Uniface production confirms this never progressed beyond early die trials.