Mexico's 50-Peso Bill Featuring Aztec City of Tenochtitlan Wins 2021 Banknote of the Year

The Bank of Mexico scored another big win after its new 50-peso bill featuring the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan won as 2021's banknote of the year.

According to Mexico News Daily, the Bank of Mexico, as printer and issuer of the note, has won the prestigious "Bank Note of the Year" award two years in a row.

Infobae reported that the International Bank Note Society's (IBNS) voting membership chose the 50-peso note above 20 other attractive notes released in 2021.

The Tenochtitlan 50-peso bill was among the more than 100 new banknotes released last year. Among these numbers, 20 were only identified to have a sufficiently new design to be member nominated.

The IBNS noted that the 50-peso Mexican bill went head-to-head with Sao Tome and Principe's 200-dobra bill. Costa Rica's 10,000-colones note commemorating the abolition of a country's army leader and the Bank of England's 50-pound note featuring Queen Elizabeth II with World War II code breaker Alan Turing tied in third place.

Rounding out the top eight vote-getters were Romania's 20-lei banknote (showing the country's heroine of World War I, Ecaterina Teodoroiu), the Royal Bank of Scotland's 50-pound bill (featuring social reformer Flora Stevenson), China's 20-yuan bill (with the theme of the 2022 Winter Olympics), and the Cook Islands 3-dollar banknote (showing Cook Islands legend Ina riding on a shark).

An initiative of the IBNS with around 2,000 members globally, the IBNS Bank Note of the Year award is given to recognize an exceptional banknote issued each year.

Banknotes nominated by members must have artistic merit and innovative security features and have been issued to the public for the first time during the year of the award.

The IBNS is a non-profit educational organization that aims to promote and advance the study, collection, and dissemination of information related to paper money.

Mexico's New 50-Peso Bill Celebrates Foundation of Aztec City of Tenochtitlan

The Bank of Mexico's 50-peso bill features a grand design that shows the country's culture and biodiversity.

Mexico News Daily reported that one side of the purple-colored polymer banknote shows an image of the rear view of the "Teocalli of the Sacred War," which is a stone miniature of a Mexica or Aztec temple.

The said temple was carved on the orders of Moctezuma II, the "tlatoani" or ruler of Tenochtitlan when the Spanish arrived during the early 16th century.

The rear side of the monolith features an eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus, belonging to the Mexican culture. The words "Foundation of Tenochtitlan, representing the historical period of old Mexico," can be seen below the image of the monolith.

In the background, the city of Tenochtitlan, based on a mural by Diego Rivera located in the National Palace called "La gran Tenochtitlan," can be seen. Rivera is an acclaimed 20th-century Mexican artist.

Tenochtitlan, which was founded by the Mexica people in 1325 on an island located on Lake Texcoco, is where Mexico City was built. Tenochtitlan means a "place where prickly pears abound" in Nahuatl.

The other side of the 50-peso bill features an axolotl. According to Mexico News Daily, an axolotl is a species of salamander endemic to the waterways of the Mexico City borough of Xochimilco.

Chinampas or floating gardens, a dragonfly above the axolotl, and a boat on the surface of a Xochimilco canal can also be seen on this side of the bill.

The Tenochtitlan note is reportedly part of the Bank of Mexico's current G Series introduced in 2018. The IBNS noted that among the best features of this bill is security since it is printed on polymer.

According to the Bank of Mexico, the polymer substrate is beneficial because it is harder to counterfeit, cheaper, and less harmful to the environment. The bank also said that the new 50-peso bill had raised text that can help blind and visually impaired people identify it.

Bank of Mexico Also Wins 2020 Banknote of the Year

Last year, the IBNS hailed Mexico's Sor Juana 100-peso bill as 2020's banknote of the year. The Bank of Mexico has beat 24 other nominees from different countries.

The IBNS said Mexico has successfully designed an eye-pleasing red bill that combines Hispanic architecture, a famous female Hispanic literary figure, and a tribute to the world's fragile ecosystem.

The 100-peso bill features one of Mexico's national icons and poet/writer Sor Juana Indes de la Cruz, the historical College of San Ildefonso, and the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve on its reverse.

Sor Juana, born in 1651, was known to be a self-educated nun and intellectual renowned for her poetic and writing works and political activism during her time. Sor Juana also criticized the misogyny of colonial Mexico.

The IBNS noted that the design of the Sor Juana peso bill continued to highlight the Mexican cultural and historical characteristics with new graphic motifs. Past banknote of the year recipients includes Aruba's 100-florin note in 2019 and Canada's 10-dollar bill in 2018.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

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