While the United States divided their dollar into 100 cents early on from 1793, post-independence Mexico retained the peso of 8 reales until 1863 when the Second Mexican Empire under Emperor Maximillan commenced the minting of pesos divided into 100 centavos. The restored Mexican republic under Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz continued the minting of centavo coins in base metal or silver, as well as gold coins in pesos, but it had to revert the silver 1-peso coin to the old eight reales "cap-and-ray design" from 1873 to 1897 after East Asian merchants rejected or discounted the newly designed peso coins.

From 1918 onward the weight and fineness of all the silver coins declined, until 1979, when the last silver 100-peso coins were minted. The U.S. dollar was worth 2.00 silver pesos from 1905 to 1929, rising afterwards until it stabilized at 12.50 pesos from 1954 to 1976.