Other countries that use the term pesos for the currency include: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, the Philippines, and Uruguay.
These pesos or dollars were minted from the rich silver mine outputs of modern-day Mexico and Bolivia and exported in large quantities to Europe and Asia.
[8] Mexican silver pesos of original cap-and-ray design were legal tender in the United States until 1857 and in China until 1935.
Throughout most of the 20th century, the Mexican peso remained one of the more stable currencies in Latin America, since the economy did not experience periods of hyperinflation common to other countries in the region.
The dollar again rose from 23 to 150 pesos that year,[10] causing any company with loans in USD and contracts in MXP to have their financial position weakened by the devaluation, the result becoming high unemployment and pressure on remaining employees to pick up the increased workloads and putting strain on economic hardships.
[11] Government attempts to fix the economy with an inward-looking industrialization strategy were only sustainable with severe economic imbalances that needed large inward capital flows that could not be maintained, and an abrupt process of stabilization and adjustment followed that saw a recession in 1983,[12] stabilizing only in the early 1990s at above 3,000 MXP/USD when a government economic strategy called the "Stability and Economic Growth Pact" (Pacto de estabilidad y crecimiento económico, PECE) was adopted under President Carlos Salinas.
[16] Still, several contemporary economists of the time noted the unexpected shocks to the economy during 1994, which exacerbated the situation, starting with the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, causing a ripple effect on the exchange rate and interest rates that resulted in increased capital leaving the country.
The result was the devaluation of MXN because of a domestic recession and an avalanche of investor withdrawals due to concern about the government's inability to remain liquid in its international debt repayments.
The MXN crisis let investors in 1995 see a failure of Mexican authorities to act with a lack of preparation to soften the devaluation with a more substantial commitment to maintaining the stability of the exchange rates and questioning further investment in the economy.
[19] As the GNP fell by 9.2% in 1995, the panic of the MXN devaluation was significant to Mexican citizens, as the peso depreciated against the USD by 82.9%, while the interest rates rose from 10.5 to 42.7%.
Migration in 1995 was 40% higher than the average level of the rest of the 1990s, with 200,000 to 300,000 more Mexicans immigrating over the border, increasing a labour shock in Mexico that also affected parts of the southwestern United States.
[23] MXN finally started to see a stabilization between 1996 and 1998, once the Mexican government had enacted banking rescue packages to prevent further collapse, resulting in state control over a large majority of the Mexican financial sector, which led to a renewed growth in the economy that saw more stability by the turn of the millennium.
The last two coins featured the portrait of Emperor Maximilian on the obverse, and the imperial arms of the short-lived empire on the reverse.
The obverse had the Mexican official coat of arms (an eagle with a snake in its beak, standing on a cactus plant) and the legends "Estados Unidos Mexicanos" and "Un Peso".
The reverse showed a woman riding a horse, her hand lifted high in exhortation holding a torch, and the date.
In circulation, they are extraordinarily rare, but their novelty value offsets the unease most users feel at having such a large amount of money in a single coin.
Although the Bank has tried to encourage users to collect full sets of these coins, issuing special display folders for this purpose, the high cost involved has worked against them.
There is also a trend for supermarkets to ask customers to round up the total to the nearest 50¢ or 1 peso to automatically donate the difference to charities.
[48] The first banknotes issued by the Mexican state were produced in 1823 by Emperor Agustin de Iturbide in denominations of 1, 2 and 10 pesos.
Ten-pesos notes were also issued by Emperor Maximilian in 1866 but, until the 1920s, banknote production lay entirely in the hands of private banks and local authorities.
It is a modified version of Series C with the word "nuevos" dropped, the bank title changed from "El Banco de México" to "Banco de México" and the clause "pagará a la vista al portador" (Pay at sight to the bearer) removed.
MXN $50, $100, $200, and $500 were the first to be upgraded starting from October 15, 2001; in an effort to combat counterfeiting, these notes were modified with the addition of an iridescent strip.
The new $20 is printed on longer-lasting polymer plastic rather than paper, and lacks the iridescent strip, but includes a clear window.
[67] On December 19, 2005, $100, $200, and $500 MXN banknotes in Series D1 were printed, including raised, tactile patterns, meant to make them distinguishable for people with vision incapacities.
This system has been questioned[citation needed] and many demand that it be replaced by actual Braille so it can be used by foreign visitors to Mexico not used to these symbols.
Each denomination is longer than the lower by 7 mm (0.28 in), and a plastic clipboard was distributed free of charge starting in November 2012, which included raised measurement marks and Braille characters to assist the visually impaired.
There was a printing error in the $100 notes, in the small letters (almost unnoticeable, as they are very small and the same color as the waving lines), near the top right corner, just above the transparent corn, from the side of the "La Revolución contra la dictadura Porfiriana", it is written: "Sufragio electivo y no reelección" (Elective suffrage and no reelection), this supposed to be a quote to Francisco I. Madero's famous phrase, but he said "Sufragio efectivo no reelección" (Valid Suffrage, No Reelection).
President Felipe Calderón made a newspaper announcement in which he apologized for this, and said that the notes were going to continue in circulation, and that they would retain their value.
[87] The previous intaglio symbols were dropped from Series G. Instead, the upper left and right edges of the 200, 500, and 1000-peso notes have tactile parallel horizontal lines for identification by touch.
[48] The Spanish dollar and Mexican peso served as a global silver standard reserve currency, recognized all over Europe, Asia and the Americas from the 16th to 20th centuries.