It was not unusual for rebel factions of the Mexican Revolution to have money printed in the U. S. A.   What is unusual is the record that survives of one printing run of rebel notes produced by the Maverick-Clarke Lithograph Company of San Antonio, Texas.  A newspaper report from 1914 offers a rare glimpse into how the one of the principals of the Revolution, General Francisco “Pancho” Villa, arranged to finance his revolutionary efforts.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

San Antonio Express, Friday, May 8, 1914.

     “Adding $5,000,000 [pesos] to the volume of the circulating medium of the Mexican Constitutionalists, the Maverick-Clarke Litho Co. yesterday completed the huge task of lithographing 1,652,500 pieces of currency ranging in value from 50 cents to 50 pesos.  Contract for the big job was executed at Juarez, March 24, it being stipulated that the last of the bills was to [be] ready by midnight Monday night.  The final number of the hundreds of thousands of pieces of the currency was finished at 8 o’clock, four hours ahead of the required schedule.

 

     Agents of the Constitutionalists, Jose Ferlas and Senor Gonzales, paid the contract price yesterday in gold coin of the United States and the plates were turned back to the Carranza government.  The issue was divided as follows: Five hundred thousand 50 cent pieces, 750,000 1 peso bills, 200,000 5 peso bills, 150,000 10 peso certificates, 37,500 twenties, and 15,000 in fifties.  Paper used in making of the money that is worth at least a fourth of its face value in United States cash, and will rise materially in value if the Constitutionalists succeed, consists of what is known as Woronoco parchment.  It is not only strong and flexible, but resists use and wear and tear equal to any currency made in any Government establishment.

 

     Before it can be put into circulation, however, it will have to be signed by both the tesorero general and the interventor.  It is presumed this will be done at Chihuahua.  The signature of M. Chao, lately deposed as Governor of Chihuahua by orders of General Villa, is lithographed on all the currency contained in the issue.

 

     Contract for the work was signed by L. de la Garza, as the representative of the Constitutionalists.  He sent a dozen to fifteen men to San Antonio to act in various capacities while the lithographing was being done.  Extreme care was taken by all these men to prevent any publicity in connection with their mission.

 

     Messrs. Ferlas and Gonzales left to the firm doing the work the matter of selecting the designs.  Every piece, save those of the 50 centavos size bears excellent likenesses of the men whose memories are revered by Constitutionalists, the two martyrs, Francisco I. Madero and Abram Gonzales.  Gonzales was the Governor of Chihuahua, who is said to have been murdered by being hurled from a train on which he was a prisoner under the moving wheels.  On the reverse side is a splendid reproduction of the National Palace in the City of Mexico, guarded at either side by a huge griffin.  Men familiar with such matters say it will be an absolute impossibility to ever successfully counterfeit any of this currency.

 

     This is the first money known to have been lithographed in this city.  The Constitutionalists have had so much trouble in the way of having their currency lithographed that every precaution that could possibly have been taken was used in connection with the issue manufactured for them here.  Of late there have been scores of counterfeits of the various denominations issued by them.  Millions of an issue consigned to them a year or so ago was held up at the border, the affair ending in litigation in the United States Courts.

 

     Though nobody connected with the contract seems to have any idea as to the point on the Rio Grande where the money was taken for crossing, Constitutionalists said last night [May 7] the currency was already over the river and that the task of signing it will be on in a day or two.”

     This was not the Maverick-Clarke Litho. Company’s first contract with the Mexican rebels.  Nicholas Follansbee, in his The Stamps of the Mexican Revolution, 1913 – 1916, attributes two issues of Constitutionalist postage/revenue  stamps to the Maverick-Clarke Company.  In the fall of 1913, the company produced a series of revenue stamps for the Constitutionalist government of Venustiano Carranza.  Denominations prepared were 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 centavos, and 1 peso.  The stamps had been delivered and were in use by October 23, 1913, in the State of Sonora.

     A shortage of postage stamps led to the use of the revenue stamps (above) for postage until January 1914.  On January 8th, the revenue stamps were replaced by a new issue of postage stamps lithographed by Maverick-Clarke in San Antonio.  These stamps were issued in denominations of 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20, and 50 centavos, and 1 peso.  The exact extent of the issue is unknown, but Constitutionalist postal records account for more than 2.7 million pesos in value.

     Somewhat to Villas surprise, the populations of the two cities readily accepted the “bank-on-bank” checks, and he was praised as a generous and compassionate liberator.  The idea that he could issue money that people would use without question meant financial independence from the First Chief.

 

     On November 15, 1913, Villa captured the border city of Juárez, Chihuahua, and as a matter of form, Villa once again asked Carranza for money.  This time Carranza did not even bother to answer Villa’s request.  Carranza’s reluctance, or inability, to fund Villa’s operations served to drive the two men further apart.  With his occupation of the city of Chihuahua, on December 8, 1913, General Villa and his División del Norte (Division of the North) found that the last of the “bank-on-bank” checks were almost gone.  Short of funds, and refusing even to ask Carranza for assistance, Villa used his office of Provisional Governor of the State of Chihuahua, to decree the issue of his own paper money in the name of the TESORERÍA GENERAL DEL ESTADO.

     These simply designed notes were printed in the basement of the Governor‘s Palace in Chihuahua city.  The issue was backed by nothing more than Villa’s name, which appeared on all denominations.  According to Friedrich Katz in his The Life and Times of Pancho Villa, Carranza’s immediate reaction was to send Luis Cabrerra and Elisco Arredondo, both high-ranking and influential agents, to Villa to direct him to refrain from printing his own money.  Although Villa received both men politely, he would not submit to the First Chief and told Carranza’s agents that he would continue to print his own money.  Carranza saw Villa’s refusal as what it was, a personal challenge to his authority.

 

    The notes of the TESORERÍA GENERAL DEL ESTADO quickly fell victim to rampant counterfeiting.  Their design was easily copied, even by novice counterfeiters.  Villa’s concern grew as more and more people refused his new currency.  When its circulation was made mandatory, many were reluctant to accept it because of the counterfeiting problem and resistance to its use continued..  Villa had no technicians capable of producing sophisticated paper money, and he realized that the TESORERÍA notes would have to be replaced quickly.  On February 14, 1914, he signed a military decree establishing the new ESTADO DE CHIHUAHUA currency.  On February 28, 1914, Governor Manuel Chao was instructed to set aside silver bullion to the value of 3,000,000 gold dollars in the state treasury to back the new series of notes.  Villa directed that his government immediately seek firms in the Untied States to produce sophisticated notes which would suppress counterfeiting.

 

     Villa’s personal advisor on monetary matters was Lázaro de la Garza, a shady businessman from Torreón, Coahuila, who first gained Villa’s confidence and favor by handling the “enforced loans” which produced the “bank-on-bank checks”.  In March 1914, Villa sent him to Juárez, Chihuahua, to meet with potential bidders for production of the new currency.  Villa insisted that the design of the front of the notes include portraits of the martyrs, President Francisco I. Madero and Chihuahua Governor Abraham Gonzáles.  The remainder of the design was left to his agents and the engravers.

 

     De la Garza may have met with several representatives of various printing concerns in Texas and the southwest while at Juárez.  On March 24, 1914, a contract was let to Maverick-Clarke Lithograph Company of San Antonio, to produce 5,000,000 pesos in various denominations.  The contract was to be completed by midnight, May 4, 1914, and the notes and plates were to be turned over to Villa’s representatives at an undisclosed location along the Rio Grande.  Most likely, the “proved track record” of the company in the production of stamps for Carranza led to the contract which produced the ESTADO DE CHIHUAHUA paper money.      A number of agents were sent to San Antonio to supervise and assist in the production of the notes, and to insure security of the project.  Secrecy was essential, since the neutrality laws of the United States were vague and not consistently enforced.  U. S. officials had previously confiscated shipments of rebel currency in 1913.

 

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     The events that led to the production of paper money for General Villa were a series of clashes of will between the general and his superior, the self-proclaimed First Chief of the revolution, Venustiano Carranza.

 

     Villa and Carranza first met during the Madero revolution of 1910-1911.  Carranza was Madero’s Secretary of War, and Villa was a Colonel in Madero’s army.  The two men took an instant dislike to each other.  Carranza was of the opinion that Villa was a dangerous nobody who was seeking to raise his status by virtue of service in the revolution.  Villa’s lasting impression of Carranza was that he was un chocolatero perfumado (a perfumed chocolate drinker).  Their relationship deteriorated from there.

 

     In May 1913, Carranza issued the first paper money of the revolution in the name of the Goberieno Constitucionalista de México (Constitutionalist Government of Mexico).  With an initial issue of only 5 million pesos, Carranza was very tight-fisted with his money.  He was particularly loath to issue funds to his field commanders to support their military operations.  When, in early October 1913, General Villa and the newly organized División del Norte (Division of the North) took the twin cities of Torreón, Coahuila and Gómez Palácio, Durango, Villa ordered his soldiers to pay for everything that they required of the civilian population.

 

     Villa asked Carranza for 350,000 pesos to pay his troops.  Carranza sent only 50,000 pesos.  Villa had to resort to “forced loans” from the local branch banks in the area.  The result was the villista “bank-on-bank checks” of the branch banks of both Torreón and Gómez Palacio.