If you are into a challenge, then the banknotes of Mexico, are something that will keep you busy for a while. In the next posts, I will try to reveil some of the 'secrets' behind the history of the Mexican banknotes.
Let me start with the banknotes that were in use after the second world war.
The story starts a little bit earlier, as the 1 peso notes, at that time, were introduced in 1936.
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| 1 peso note 1967 |
In the centre of the note, we see the Aztec stone of the Sun.
Not to be confused with the 'Maya calender'.
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| Aztec vs Maya civilizations |
The Mayas were situated in the south of what is now Yucantán, Mexico.
Their civilisation is way older then the Aztec culture, which can be situated in the wider area around Tenochtitlán, currently Mexico-city.
Although both civilisations, were not known as being connected in trade or cultural perspective, there are parallels in the way they were artistic, religious and scientific.
The design in the middle of the 1-peso note, is the Aztec sun stone, and in a way, it is also a kind of calender, but more in a ceremonial rather than a practical way.
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| detail 1-peso note |
The stone was discovered in December 1790, by workers who were working on the land that would become the 'Plaza Mayor' (considered as the 'central square' of Mexico city - Plaza Zócalo, Plaza de la Constitución or even Plaza de Armas).
This square was already the ceremonial centre of the Aztec' civilisation, and was the area in front of the mayor temple, of which the remains are still visible now.
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| Remains of the Templo Mayor |
When the giant stone was discovered, the church authorities did not want the the pagan artefact to be shown to the public, but the Mexican Antropologist, Antonio de León y Gama, succesfully argued that this object had such a historic and artistic value, that it should be displayed for future generations.
Nowadays, the stone can be visited at the National Museum of Antropology in Mexico-city.
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| Entrance of the Museum of Antropology |
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| Piedra del Sol - Mexico City |
The Aztec 'Piedra del Sol' is a 23 ton basalt monolith, with a diameter of more than 3 m.
According the museum's guide, the nose of the central figure is missing, as the conquistadores in the 16th century used the face to aim to, for shooting practice. For them, the Solar stone was unimportant, as it dissapeared from the history books till it was rediscovered in 1790.
The original stone was actually very colourful, as shown in the image above.
The central circle, shows the image of Tonatiuh, which means '(god of) the sun' in the Aztec language Náhuatl. Tonatiuh is considered to be the most important of the Aztec gods.
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5 gods in the centre
of the Solar Stone |
Surrounding the central image, there are 4 more gods: from left to right and top to bottom: Wind, Jaguar, Fire and Water.
In the second circle, we see 20 images, representing 20 days.
According the Aztec, there were 13 days in a week (trecena).
The year started with day 1 + day symbol 1. Next day was day 2 with day symbol 2.
After one 'week' of 13 days, they restarted the second trecena (or Tonalpohualli) , but as there are 20 day symbols, the first day of the second 'week' had day symbol 14.
The 8th day of the second week, was connected to the first day symbol again.
As such, a full cycle had 20 times 13 days, or 360 days.
They were aware that a year had 365 days, so the 5 'spare' days were considered as extra. Those days were supposingly used for offering to the gods.
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| 20 Aztec symbols for 20 days |
Around the 20 symbols for the days, is another circle, symbolising the solar rays.
The whole is surrounded by serpents, protecting the calendar.
to be continued...
