1974 Cinco Centavos

[gpimper]

Fun little coin.  Not sure were I acquired it... :-)  Just over 4 Gram and around 17 mm.  Love the obverse!  Probably picked it up in either Mexico or Belize.  I think Yuma Arizona could be a possibility.  I should keep better notes.

[Figleaf]

Two sides two stories. I can be short about both. "La Corregidora", Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, because Wiki tells her story, albeit in a bit of a dry fashion. She was behaving like a feminist before feminism was invented, on par with Constance Markievicz. Law, society, convention, her husband, a whole monastery, couldn't stop her from living her life her way.

Wiki has a superb lemma on the Mexican coat of arms. It is a variant of an oft-occurring tale of divine intervention or an admired leader choosing a place for his clan to settle where there is water, plants and fowl, so that the food supply will be good.

Note also the Mo mintmark, first used in early colonial history for the Mexico city mint.

Peter

[gpimper]

My Kiddo did a lot of research about that lady...pretty amazing woman!  Who new?  Peter, thank you for pointing out that mint mark, I over looked that.  Neat history there!

[Prosit]

At one time I had a date run of these coins. No rarities and because there aren't any rarities, putting the set together was quite the challenge. But it was a lot of fun. I gave the set to a friend's young son in the hopes it would encourage him to explore his heritage and maybe explore coins too. As far as I know that effort failed but I had good intentions.

Dale

[Figleaf]

It's the intention that counts, Dale. Not the results. I have done several of these good intent operations with coins and AFAIK all failed, but one is still running. I think the secret is writing off the gift as soon as it has been given.

Peter