5 Pesos Banco Mercantil de Veracruz

The Banco Mercantil de Veracruz operated under the 1897 Ley General de Instituciones de Crédito, which granted concessions to state-chartered banks but kept the Banco Nacional de México and the Banco de Londres y México as the only institutions with nationwide circulation rights. Notes from Veracruz-chartered banks like this one were theoretically restricted in where they could be spent — a practical limitation that shaped how much paper actually moved beyond the port city.

The American Bank Note Company produced the plates, as it did for most Mexican state banks of the period. ABNC work for Mexican concession banks was generally consistent in quality; the more useful distinction is that the Banco Mercantil de Veracruz was among the smaller regional issuers, and its notes were rendered obsolete when Huerta's government nationalized and liquidated the state banking system after 1913.