Item number: A4644

Reference number: KM#378

Year: AD 1867

Material: Gold (.875)

Size: 12.5 x 12.5 mm

Weight: 1.6900 g recorded

Manufactured by: Culiacan Mint

Provenance: Fuchin Coin 2025

This specimen represents a half-escudo gold coin minted by the Restored Republic of Mexico in AD 1867.

The centre of the coin’s obverse features the Mexican coat of arms, depicting an eagle holding a snake in its beak, perched upon a prickly pear cactus growing from a rock in the middle of a lake. This coat of arms is derived from Aztec mythology, wherein the rock described corresponds to the original site of Tenochtitlan, which is present-day Mexico City. The oak and laurel branches below symbolise victory in Greco-Roman mythology and are consequently frequently employed as symbols of republicanism. Circumscribed above is the Spanish inscription ‘REPUBLICA MEXICANA’, representing the official name of the Restored Republic of Mexico, the ‘Mexican Republic’. The edges of both the obverse and reverse of the coin are encircled by fine denticles.

The centre of the reverse features an open book, upon whose pages the word ‘LEY’—Spanish for ‘Law’—is faintly discernible. To the right, a hand holds a staff topped with a Phrygian cap; this headgear originated from the manumitted slaves of ancient Rome and became a symbol of liberty and liberation following the French Revolution. Circumscribed above is the inscription ‘LA LIBERTAD EN LA LEY’, which translates to ‘Liberty under the Law’. Encircled below is the mint mark and assayers’ initials reading ‘*4E•Mo•1865•C•H•21Qs.’, in which ‘4E’ denotes the denomination of four escudos, ‘Mo’ represents the mint mark of the Mexico City Mint (Casa de Moneda de México), ‘1865’ indicates the year of mintage (AD 1865), ‘C•H’ presumably stands for the assayers’ initials, and ‘21Qs’ signifies ‘21 karats’, equivalent to a gold purity of 87.5 per cent.

Benito Juárez was born in AD 1806 into an impoverished indigenous Zapotec peasant family in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, and was orphaned at an early age. After overcoming numerous adversities, he studied law and entered politics in AD 1831. He served successively as a municipal councillor of Oaxaca and a state legislator, before being elected Governor of Oaxaca in AD 1847. Deeply revered for his administrative integrity, competence, and profound devotion to the lower classes, he was hailed by most Mexicans as the ‘Lincoln of Mexico’. In AD 1853, the dictator Santa Anna, having regained power, ordered his arrest and exile to the United States. However, Juárez returned to his homeland in AD 1855 to participate in the uprising that successfully overthrew the conservative dictatorship. He subsequently served as the Minister of Justice in the provisional government, enacting the ‘Ley Juárez’ (Juárez Law), which abolished the legal privileges of military officers and the clergy. During the ensuing, brutal Reform War (AD 1858–1860), he emerged as the core leader of the liberals, concurrently serving as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the provisional president, leading indigenous peasants and mestizos to defeat the conservatives. He officially assumed the presidency in AD 1861, immediately confronting the grim reality of a tripartite armed invasion by Great Britain, France, and Spain, alongside French efforts to install Maximilian to establish the Second Empire. In AD 1863, although the Second Federal Republic of Mexico was defeated, resistance continued unabated. The imperial regime was successfully overthrown in AD 1867, and Juárez continued to advance liberal reforms until his death in office on 18 July AD 1872. Due to his steadfast defence against foreign intervention, Juárez subsequently became a revered Mexican national hero.

In AD 1867, following the withdrawal of French forces and the execution of Emperor Maximilian, the Second Empire collapsed, and Mexican history officially entered the period of the Restored Republic, led sequentially by the liberal leader Benito Juárez and subsequently by Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, thereby embarking on a grueling national reconstruction. Throughout this decade, the republican government attempted to fully implement the Constitution of 1857 and the Reform Laws, enforcing the separation of church and state, confiscating vast ecclesiastical properties, and establishing a secular education system independent of Catholic Church control, in anticipation of transforming the state into a modern, liberal, rule-of-law society; in terms of the economy and infrastructure, this period witnessed concrete breakthroughs, as not only did the first major railway connecting Mexico City with the primary port of Veracruz officially open to traffic in AD 1873, greatly facilitating inland commodities and foreign trade, but the modernization reform of the monetary system was also solidified at this time, with the government successfully implementing a unified decimal currency system, discontinuing the minting of old-regime gold and silver coins inherited from the colonial era, and transitioning to the issuance of the new republican peso bearing the design of the scales of justice and a legal scroll. However, despite laying the institutional and economic foundations of a embryonic modern state, the government of the Restored Republic continuously faced the predicament of regional warlordism and extreme central fiscal insolvency, whilst internal divisions among the liberals driven by power struggles, coupled with land reforms that inadvertently divested indigenous populations of their communal lands essential for subsistence, further exacerbated armed unrest within the lower strata of society, meaning that this transitional phase, which sought to balance liberal democracy with structural reconstruction, ultimately failed to achieve long-term stability and peace; following the coup d’état launched by General Porfirio Díaz in AD 1876, the Restored Republic was brought to an end amidst the flames of the Plan of Tuxtepec, and the nation subsequently slid into the thirty-year centralized autocratic rule of the Porfiriato.

物件編號: A4644

參考書目編號: KM#378

年代: 公元 1867 年

材質: 黃金 (.875)

尺寸: 12.5 x 12.5 mm

重量: 記錄為 1.6900 g

製造地: 庫利亞坎造幣廠

來源: 福君錢幣 2025

這是一枚墨西哥復辟共和國於公元1867年所鑄之金幣，面額為半埃斯庫多。

金幣正面中央是墨西哥國徽，為一隻叼著蛇的雄鷹佇立在一棵從湖中的岩石長出的仙人掌上。國徽取自阿茲特克人的神話，而神話中所敘述的岩石，便是特諾奇蒂特蘭城的原址，也就是如今的墨西哥城。下方的橡葉與月桂在希臘羅馬神話中象徵著勝利，也因此經常作為共和制的象徵。周圍上方環列西班牙文「REPUBLICA MEXICANA」則為「墨西哥復辟共和國」的官方名稱「墨西哥共和國」。硬幣正面與背面的邊緣皆以細方齒環繞。

銀幣背面中央為翻開的書，書頁上隱約可見「LEY」，即西文中的「法律」。右側手持棍上撐著一頂弗里吉亞帽，該服飾源於古羅馬時期的解放奴隸，於法國大革命後，該帽成為自由與解放的象徵。周圍上方環列「LA LIBERTAD EN LA LEY」，可譯為「法治下的自由」；下方環列「*½E•C•1867•C•H•21Qs.」，其中「½E」為面額「半埃斯庫多」(½ escudo)，「C」為庫利亞坎造幣廠的鑄幣標記，「1867」為鑄造年，「C•E」為驗金師克萊門特·埃斯皮諾薩·德·洛斯·蒙特羅斯(Clemente Espinosa de los Monteros)的姓名縮寫，「21Qs」即為「21K」，相當於含金量87.5%。

胡亞雷斯(Benito Juárez，書中譯作胡爾雷斯)於公元1806年出生於墨西哥南部瓦哈卡州的薩波特克(Zapotec)原住民貧困農民家庭，幼年父母雙亡。他在克服重重困境後攻讀法律，並於公元1831年起步入政界，歷任瓦哈卡市議員、州議員，並於公元1847年當選瓦哈卡州州長，因作風廉潔能幹、全心關懷低下階層而深受愛戴，被大部分墨西哥人譽為「墨西哥的林肯」。公元1853年，重掌政權的獨裁者聖塔安納下令將其逮捕並流放至美國，但他於公元1855年返國參加起義，成功推翻了保守派的獨裁政府。隨後他出任臨時政府的司法部長，頒布了取消軍官與教士特權的《胡爾雷斯法》，並在隨後慘烈的「改革戰爭」(公元1858至1860年)中成為自由派的核心領導人，兼任最高法院審判長與臨時總統，帶領印第安農民與混血種人擊敗保守派。公元1861年他正式就任總統，隨即面對英、法、西三國武裝入侵，以及法國扶植馬克西米連諾建立第二帝國的嚴峻局勢。公元1963年，墨西哥第二聯邦共和國戰敗，但仍抵抗不懈，最終於公元1867年成功推翻帝制，並繼續推動自由主義改革，直至公元1872年7月18日於任內逝世，由於其抵禦外國的經歷，胡亞雷斯日後成為墨西哥民族英雄。

公元1867年，隨著法軍撤退與馬克西米連皇帝遭槍決，第二帝國宣告覆滅，墨西哥歷史正式進入了復辟共和時期，由自由派領袖貝尼托·胡亞雷斯與隨後的塞巴斯蒂安·萊爾多·德·特哈達相繼領導，展開一場艱困的國家重建。這十年間，共和政府試圖全面落實1857年憲法與《改革法案》，強制推行政教分離、沒收教會龐大財產，並建構擺脫天主教會控制的世俗教育體系，期盼將國家轉型為現代化的自由主義法治社會；在經濟與基礎建設上，此時期取得了具體突破，不僅連接墨西哥城與第一大港韋拉克魯斯的首條大鐵路於1873年正式通車，極大促進了內陸物資與對外貿易，貨幣制度的現代化改革也在此時定型，政府成功推行統一的貨幣十進位制，停鑄殖民地遺留的舊制金銀幣，改為發行帶有天平與法律卷軸圖樣的共和國新版披索。然而，儘管在法制與經濟制度上奠定了現代國家雛形，復辟共和政府卻始終面臨地方軍閥割據、中央財政極度匱乏的窘境，而自由派內部因爭權導致的分裂，加上土地改革意外剝奪原住民賴以生存的公社土地，更激化了底層社會的武裝動盪，這段試圖兼顧自由民主與體制重建的轉型期最終未能實現長治久安，隨著公元1876年波菲里奧·迪亞斯將軍發動政變奪權，復辟共和在「圖斯特佩克計劃」的烽火中宣告終結，國家隨即滑向長達三十年的「波菲里奧體制」中央集權獨裁統治。