Mexican Gold Coins

Spanish Escudos
Minted in Mexico



Scudos of the
Iturbide Empire



Gold Escudos
Republic of Mexico



Mexican Gold Pesos



Mexican Gold Libertad

Before Mexico was proclaimed an independent state and a republic in 1810, most of the gold coins circulated on the territory of Mexico were Spanish gold coins. Even after declaration of independence, it took over 10 years for a Civil war to finish. Officially, from the point of view of Spain, Mexico was still a colony, hence all Mexican gold coins minted before 1821 were indeed Spanish gold coins with Mexican mint marks and the gold currency was the Escudo, with denominations of 1/2, 1, 2, 4, and 8 Escudos.

The Independence War was ended by Augustin de Iturbide in 1821, who cleverly manipulated both opponents of the Republic and royalists, and crowned himself as an Emperor. The Empire of Iturbide lasted for little bit less than a year, but produced a number Mexican gold coins, including one type of 4 Scudos and 3 types of 8 Scudos gold coins. The coins were minted in very small amounts and are very rare numismatic articles.

Starting from 1825, Mexico as a part of the Federal Republic of Central America was issuing first own Mexican gold coins, which were in fact still quite like Spanish gold coins, but not featuring the Spanish monarchs anymore. The currency unit was still the Mexican Gold Escudo with denominations of 1/2, 1, 2, 4, and 8 Escudos. There were two major types of coins distinguished in the angle and size of the hand holding a liberty cap. Gold coins of the First Republic were minted for another four decades until a short raise of the Empire of Maximilian in 1864.

Maximilian I, the Emperor of Mexico, was a member of Austria's Imperial Habsburg-Lorraine family. He was approached by Mexican royalists in 1859 and after some hesitations accepted the crown in 1864. His rule lasted for three years and only one type of Mexican gold coins, 20 Escudos, was issued in 1866. The Empire of Maximilian fell in 1867 under attacks of Republican forces; Maximilian was captured and later executed. It's worth mentioning that a lot of "Maximilian Mexican gold coins" are available both online and offline of different sizes and denominations, but they're really all fakes or fantasy coins, whichever definition you like more.

With the fall of the Empire of Maximilian and the raise of the Second Republic, a new page in the history of Mexican gold coins was turned over. The time of the Escudo had ended and the time of the Peso had started. From 1870 to 1905, Mexican gold coins were minted in the following denominations: 1 Peso, 2.5 Pesos, 5 Pesos, 10 Pesos, and 20 Pesos.

After forming the United Mexican States, a monetary reform followed and only two types of Mexican gold were minted for a short while – 5 Pesos and 10 Pesos. Both coins were first issued in 1905 and featured a portrait of Miguel Hidalgo – the leader of the Mexican Revolution. Little over 10 years after, more denominations of gold coins were issued, including 2 Pesos, 2.5 Pesos, 20 Pesos, and 50 Pesos. Minting of the gold coins were officially ended in 1940s and 1950s for different denominations, but for the next following 20 to 30 years, the Mexican Mint issued several millions of restrikes for all denominations from 2 Pesos to 50 Pesos.

In 1981, the first Mexican Gold Libertad was issued as a one troy ounce gold bullion coin. Later, more sizes and fractions were added and currently there're 6 different sizes: 1/20, 1/15, 1/10, 1/4, 1/2, and 1 Onza. Starting from 1985 a number of commemorative Mexican gold coins were issued in denominations from 250 Pesos to 2000 Pesos. Currently, there is a number of commemorative Mexican gold coins issued in denominations from 20 Pesos to 50,000 Pesos.

You can see current listings for Mexican Gold Coins here: