RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Of all the coins that emerged in Mexico’s history, the most important is the Mexican 8 Reales, to such an extent that it became China’s official currency. With it the Chinese would buy goods and services.
In a square in the city of Jinggangshan, in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangxi, there is a massive replica of the coin with a magnificent republican eagle on the front and above it a wording that fills with pride the Mexicans who live or visit the country: “República Mexicana” (Mexican Republic).
This monument was erected in this part of China because it was in this city that Mao Zedong’s country established its first mint, managed by the Red Army under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in 1928.
It was there, in the first Chinese Mint, that the country’s officials copied, reproduced, multiplied and distributed the Mexican 8 Reales coin among the population.
There are no known records indicating whether or not the Chinese were required to request permission from the Royal Mexican Mint to use the design, so it is assumed they did not.
To personalize the coin, Red Army officers working on the coin placed a “gong” on the right wing of the Mexican eagle, meaning “workers, peasants and soldiers,” a communist twist.
Origin and Chinese motivation
In 1535 the Royal Mint began coining the 8 Reales in Mexico City, first with the head of Spanish kings, and later with the Mexican eagle.
At the time, Mexican silver was extracted in abundance from the various mines, particularly in Zacatecas, which enabled Spaniards and Mexicans to create an 8 Reales coin with a silver purity superior to that of other countries (in other latitudes silver items were produced but with a higher amount of copper or other metals, which reduced their worth), and over time it became a guarantee of real value for people from a large part of the planet.
American ship captains used the 8 Real coin to buy slaves on Africa’s western coasts and to purchase tea from China and ship it to the United States, according to researcher John McMaster in an extraordinary study entitled Asian Adventures of the Mexican Peso.
McMaster explains that the 8 Real coin was used in all Pacific islands and along the coast of Asia, from Siberia to Bombay. With this coin libraries and Asian art collections were also purchased, which enriched important archives such as in Boston and Harvard Universities. In short, the 8 Reales coin is known as the first and most important world currency, a merit it held for four centuries.
In addition, the 8 Reales coin was top of mind as a currency of excellent value for people worldwide, including the Chinese, who trusted the Mexican currency during the late Qing dynasty and the Kuomintang regime so much that they decided to copy it in their first Mint founded in 1928, as explained in a report by Xinhua news agency.
As an anecdote, it is said that Mao Zedong once asked minters not to counterfeit or reduce the silver purity in his 8 Reales coin, so people would not lose their confidence in it.
Source: Mexico Desconocido