Catalog
50 Centavos Comisión Monetaria
| Issuer | Comisión Monetaria |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on cream paper with text in cursive script at centre reading the denomination and payment terms; helmeted bust of Athena in an oval vignette at left, overlaid with a circular red validation stamp. Numeral '50' in a guilloche panel at right, also struck with a red oval 'CENTAVOS' stamp. Serial numbers in blue appear at upper right and lower left, with two manuscript signatures above a repeating 'MEXICANOS' underprint at centre-bottom, and the imprint 'OFICINA IMP. DE HACIENDA-MEXICO' along the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | COMISION MONETARIA (Translation: Monetary Commission) |
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| Comments |
The Comisión Monetaria was a short-lived transitional authority created during Mexico's post-revolutionary monetary reorganization, tasked with stabilizing a currency system that had been gutted by years of competing revolutionary factions printing their own paper money. By 1920, the worst of the inflationary chaos had passed, but public trust in paper remained fragile — which helps explain why small-denomination fractional notes like this one were issued at all, filling a gap left by hoarded and melted coin.
The Oficina Impresora de Hacienda, Mexico's own government printing bureau, handled production — no foreign security printer was engaged, which was itself a deliberate assertion of institutional normalcy after years of dependency on improvised and locally lithographed emergency issues.