Numismatic Collection
Banco de México holds one of the most significant numismatic collections in Latin America, not only by size, but also because of the high quality and rarity of the pieces that comprise it, which document our nation’s monetary history from start to finish. Currently, the collection contains nearly 118,000 pieces, including coins, banknotes, specimens, medals and other objects, Mexican as well as foreign.
The collection was born in 1929, a few years after the founding of Banco de México, from a small but significant coin collection belonging to the numismatist and historian Don Manuel Romero de Terreros. It has grown over the years through donations, exchanges made with other central banks, and acquisitions on the numismatics market, both Mexican and international.
The collection of domestic banknotes includes the first Mexican paper money, the notes from the first banks with powers of issuance, the rich and diverse currencies from the Mexican Revolution, as well as various samples of notes issued by Banco de México. As for the coins, the domestic collection is of wide variety, including documented pre-Hispanic means of exchange, coinage from the Vice Royalty and the War of Independence, imperial coins minted by Agustín de Iturbide and Maximilian of Hapsburg; the coinage of the Mexican Republic, as well as the abundant coinage from the United Mexican States and the Mexican Revolution. In addition, the collection contains Mexican coins that circulated in other parts of the world, which were re-sealed and marked, and finally, regional and local coins, such as cards from haciendas used to pay wages to day laborers. The foreign coins, meanwhile, document currency from merchandise money to contemporary coins.
In addition, the collection contains various pieces related to the manufacture of means of payment, while the medals include oaths and Vice Regal proclamations and a variety of contemporary medallions.