5 Pesos Agustín de Iturbide

Agustín de Iturbide occupies one of the more awkward positions in Mexican historical memory — the creole royalist officer who switched sides, engineered independence, then crowned himself Emperor Agustín I in 1822, only to be overthrown, exiled, and eventually executed upon his unauthorized return in 1824. Mexico spent much of the 19th and 20th centuries unsure whether to claim him as a founding father or disown him as a monarchist opportunist. His inclusion in Banco de México's "Personajes" bimetallic circulation series represents a quiet rehabilitation — the same program that honors Juárez and Hidalgo without apparent irony.