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The peso is the currency of Mexico. It is divided into 100 centavos. The symbol used for the peso is "$", while centavos are represented by "¢".

ISO 4217: MXN (prior to 1993: MXP)

History

The peso was originally based on imperial Spain's silver dollars, the renowned pieces of eight of pirate literature and Hollywood swashbucklers.

The name peso, means weight, and it relates to the principal characteristic of the coin. The silver Mines of Mexico, provide ample sources of pure silver, and more important, the peso was the first coin to have a border that make easy to detect if the coin had been tampered. It was common to cut the borders of the coins of gold and silver to make other coins. So the peso was a coin with pure silver and exact weigth, so it became very popular.

Current system

On 1 January 1993 Mexico adopted a new currency, the nuevo peso ("new peso", or MXN). The new peso was equal to 1000 of the obsolete MXP pesos. The change was necessitated by the violent and massive devaluations the currency had suffered over the previous quarter century.

On 1 January 1996 the modifier nuevo was dropped from the name and new coins and banknotes – identical in every respect to the 1993 issue, with the exception of the now absent word "nuevo" – were put into circulation. The ISO 4217 code, however, remained unchanged as MXN.

Coins

The coins currently in circulation have face values of 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, $1, $2, $5, and $10. Coins worth $20 and $50 also exist and are legal tender, but they were not included in the 1996 issue and they are both extremely rare and largely disliked by users. All the coins incorporate design elements from the Aztec Calendar.