This is a facsimile reproduction of the American Numismatic Society’s Numismatic Notes and Monographs, no. 131 (1955) with a new foreword, additions to the catalog, and a valuation guide. It has been, and will continue to be, more important to numismatists and coin collectors than to historians for it is mainly a superb catalog of the earliest coins minted at Mexico City.
Robert I. Nesmith studied hundreds of pieces in private hands and in the collections of the American Numismatic Society, the Hispanic Society of America, and the Banco Nacional de México. Clearly executed tracings of all varieties identified are included in the catalog, along with a number of high quality photographic enlargements and overlay tracings for major types. Nesmith devised a neat way of cataloging the coins. To place them in chronological series, he determined who the assayers had been during the period and related them to the assayer’s mark on the coins. He refined his method of arranging the catalog by observing the stages of wear on the punches used to make the dies (again using the coins as evidence).
The forty-six pages of text provide standard information on the foundation of the mint, the various levels of mint officials and workers, the production of the coins, and the types and weights of silver and copper coins struck. This section is based largely on secondary sources and Francisco Tello de Sandoval’s inspection of the mint in 1545 which was previously used by other scholars, notably by Alberto Pradeau, Arthur Aiton, and José Toribio Medina.
