TABLE 5

20 pesos  Serie E

Known Carranzista ECdM seal / letter – Roman numeral combinations

     For whatever reason, the 20 pesos notes overprints follow an entirely different scheme of letter – number combinations.  Each note has TWO letter – number combinations rather than one.

BACK

A

M

O

R

R

O

M

A

I

II

III

IV

I

II

III

IV

     37,500 20 pesos notes were printed by Maverick-Clarke Litho Co. of San Antonio, Texas, in early May 1914.  The notes bearing the ECdM seal and control letters are all believed to have been from this printing run.  Simon Prendergast has assumed 10,000 notes per set of control letters, with set IV-R  A-IV being printed on only 7,500 notes.  With 4 sets of control letters known, it is possible that ALL of the 37,500 notes were overprinted.  This has yet to be confirmed, but to date, no 20 pesos note of this run has been seen without the ECdM seal.

     The use of the words AMOR and ROMA may have classical implications, or they may have been accidentally selected.  In the ancient Roman Republic, the word AMOR (Roma spelled backwards) was the “secret name” of the city.  It was supposedly known only to a select priesthood and was used only for specific rites to invoke protection for Rome.  It was believed that if the “secret name” of the city escaped to the uninitiated and was spoken aloud, it would bring disaster to Rome.  Belief in this superstition dissipated during the time of the Empire, although many of the common folk of Rome were made uneasy by its discussion.   There were a number of highly educated men associated with the Carrancista movement, but whether they influenced the selection of this pattern, or it was selected by coincidence is unknown.