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During the year 2000, Mr. Simon C. Prendergast kindly provided me with manuscript excerpts from his unpublished scholarly work on the paper money of Chihuahua. His research, which included the paper money issued under the authority of General Francisco “Pancho” Villa, during the period 1913 through 1915, cited records of production of the State General Treasury as reported in the Periódico Oficial del Estado de Chihuahua (Official Newspaper of the State of Chihuahua), one of the two newspapers established by the villista regime. The Periódico Oficial was concerned with the actions of the state legislature and of other state agencies, rather than the news of the day. Reports from the General Treasury concerning the issue of paper money in the names of both the Tesorería General del Estado and the Estado de Chihuahua are detailed and appear to be more complete than the listings in any of the current catalogs available to the collector. At the same time, the collector should be cautioned that the reports of the Periódico Oficial may not be entirely accurate in themselves. Remember that these are reports of treasury production, NOT the actual treasury records themselves.
Mr. Prendergast’s manuscripts provided answers to many questions regarding the currency issued under the authority of General Villa. Hopefully, this excellent exposition of Chihuahua paper money will be published in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, Mr. Prendergast has kindly agreed to contribute to the catalog developed here through the unrestricted use of his several manuscripts pertaining to villista paper money.
Earlier catalogs, based on examples that are “known” to the collecting community, included Paper Currency of Mexico, Sr. Carlos Gaytán, translated into English by Sr. Gabriel Navarro, 1975, and the Complete Encyclopedia of Mexican Paper Money, Srs. Duane Douglas, Claudio Verrey and Alberto Hidalgo, edited by Mr. Colin R. Bruce, II, Krause Publications, Iola, Wisconsin, 1982.
Over the years, the listings of Chihuahua revolutionary paper currency have been expanded and are reflected in the current edition of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Volume 1, Specialized Issues, Ninth Edition, Krause Publications, 2002.
New varieties, not listed in the Standard Catalog have been compiled as they came to light, and the “Pick” numbering system has become quite confusing. A revised numbering system seems desirable. Examples of paper money have been reorganized and renumbered sequentially by date of issue and series in this new catalog. Sub-categories under each number are based on specific varietal attributes within the series. The listing from the Standard Catalog which refer to the issues of El Banco del Estado de Chihuahua have been retained.
The information on counterfeits, until now, has not been compiled in one place. Mr. Prendergast’s research of this area, combined with “new finds” from the collections of the collaborators in this catalog, provides the collector with new challenges in collecting both genuine and counterfeit examples of the villista Chihuahua paper. “Contemporary counterfeits”, that is those circulating during the revolutionary period, are included here. Modern counterfeits, “movie money”, and the like are generally excluded.
It is our hope, that by publishing this catalog, the body of paper currency issued by Villa in Chihuahua may be more precisely outlined. My particular thanks to contributors Simon C. Prendergast, W. Crutchfield Williams, II, Bill Rapanotti, and Gene Reid, Elmer Powell, Jay Furry, and Carlos Sainz. Without the diligence of these gentlemen, this catalog would be incomplete.
J. D. Watson Goleta, California July 2004
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