These banknotes are part of the Pancho Villa era.

Okay ready? (Story time) After more than 30 yearlong regime of Porfirio Diaz, he was challenged in the presidential election by Francisco I Madero in 1910. Madero was fighting for the people and in favor of reform and social justice. If you think about it just like now Mexico was and still is full of corruption, Diaz fixed the election declaring that he won by a massive votes.

As a last effort right before the election Diaz had Madero jailed and when it became obvious the election was fixed, Madero supporter Toribio Ortega and together formed a militia in Chihuahua to oust Diaz.

Meanwhile in jail, Madero issued a “letter from jail” that declared the Diaz presidency was illegal and called for a revolt against Diaz. The revolt began in November 1910. Diaz was ousted and a new election was held in October 1911 that elected Madero as the 33rd President of Mexico.

Back in the day, Mexico was divided into districts managed by different governments and protected by rebel leaders including Pascual Orozco, Pancho Villa, and Emiliano Zapata and many others. Eventually, they turned on Madero and assassinated him on February 13, 1913.

The United States for the first time played a role in the early 1900s when Pancho Villa stole parts of New Mexico. Gen John J. Pershing was sent to Mexico to capture Pancho Villa but could not do so since Villa was hiding in the mountains of Mexico and that was not an easy task for anyone due to the huge terrain and many places to hide.

Most of if not all the notes were authorized in early 1914, the Chihuahua state and goverment did not have the ability to print notes. Eventually, they contracted with the American Banknote Company and Maverick-Clarke Litho Company, San Antonio, and Norris Peters Co. to produce the notes. All notes feature the same design engraved with different denominations and printed using different colored inks. Many of the elements used were standard to American Banknote’s catalog, for these notes, the portrait on the left is of Francisco I. Madero and the portrait on the right is Governor Abraham Gonzalez. Each features three signatures of the Tesorero General (General Treasury), Gobernator (Governor), and Interventor (Controller).  You can actually collect many of the signatures and banknotes with color seals that are ready available here on eBay and many coin shops around the country.

If you carefully observer the reverse these notes feature a framed picture of the Palacio de Gobierno do Chihuahua (Government Palace of Chihuahua) held by two griffins. These banknotes received a red stamp from Tesorero General del Estado Chihuahua (General Treasury of the State of Chihuahua) along with the stamped initials of the issuing teller. Many notes were issued without the stamp date and you can also find many notes without the year 1915 but most have the 1914 year stamp on them, the teller was supposed to stamp the date on the reverse but this task can easily be forgotten in busy days and so many of these notes do not have stamps or sometimes have more than one stamp.