1914 Peso

Before the Mexican Revolution erupted in 1910, Mexico had been ruled for 31 years by Porfirio Díaz. The Porfiriato was an era of order, foreign investment, and capital - but at the cost of land, suffrage, and political freedom. Despite Díaz's promise of open elections, his opposition - led by Francisco Madero - was arrested and the election rigged.

In response, Madero called for armed rebellion against the Porfiriato. By May 1911, with the help of caudillos Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa, he succeeded in forcing Díaz from power. But once in office, Madero turned his back on the very men who had put him there and tried to appease the old Porfiriato establishment. This infuriated Orozco, who rose in revolt. To fight him, Madero appointed an old Porfiriato general, Victoriano Huerta, to lead the federal army - with Pancho Villa serving under him.

Huerta despised Villa, and seized on a pretext - Villa's requisitioning of a horse - to arrest him. Villa slapped Huerta in the face; Huerta ordered him shot. Only a last-minute stay of execution from President Madero saved Villa's life.

On 9 February 1913, Porfiriato loyalists broke generals Bernardo Reyes and Félix Díaz (nephew of Porfirio) out of prison. Madero called on Huerta, then in the capital, to put the rising down. Instead, Huerta used the chaos as cover to launch his own coup on 19 February, had Madero arrested, and within days had him executed. The episode is remembered as La Decena Trágica - the Ten Tragic Days.

In response, Venustiano Carranza, governor of Coahuila, declared the Constitutionalist rebellion against Huerta, with Villa nominally under his command. To fight Huerta, Villa built the legendary División del Norte - the Division of the North. To pay his soldiers in the silver-mining country he controlled, Villa struck his own coinage at the Durango mint. The most famous of these is this Peso.

This is what makes the coin remarkable: the obverse, around a Phrygian cap radiating sun-rays in the classic Mexican Republican style, carries the legend ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS · UN PESO · 1914, while the reverse - showing the Mexican eagle on cactus - is encircled by the legends EJÉRCITO CONSTITUCIONALISTA above and MUERA HUERTA ("DEATH TO HUERTA") below. It is said that Huerta was so enraged by this open death-threat in pocket-change form that he decreed possession of the coin a capital offense - anyone caught with one was to be executed on the spot.

The "Dot-Dash Border" obverse variety is a recognized Durango die variant, and NGC AU-58 is an outstanding grade for a piece that, by its very nature, was meant to circulate hard among Villa's soldiers and the people of northern Mexico. Strong cartwheel luster survives in the protected fields beneath rich circulation toning.