Mexico Un Peso 1918 to 1945

Hello, Liz,

Your Mexican peso is made of 0.720 fine silver, with a total 0.3856 troy ounces of silver net. Use a web site such as kitco.com to find the current price of silver, then multiply that number by 0.3856 to find the base value of your coin. If silver were $17.50 US dollars per ounce, for instance, the base value would be 0.3856 x 17.50 = $6.75. Be sure to look up the price of silver, as it changes every day.

Catalog values for these coins run approximately as follows:

COINS DATED 1918 AND 1919
worn: Base silver value
average circulated: $50
well preserved: $250
fully uncirculated: $1500

COINS DATED 1920 AND 1921
worn: Base silver value
average circulated: $15
well preserved: $75
fully uncirculated: $300

COINS DATED BETWEEN 1922 AND 1927
worn: Base silver value
average circulated: Base silver value
well preserved: Base silver plus $5
fully uncirculated: Base silver plus $15

COINS DATED BETWEEN 1928 AND 1945
worn: Base silver value
average circulated: Base silver value
well preserved: Base silver value
fully uncirculated: Base silver plus $5

Look at the three coins in the example pictures. The coin on top, marked AU for About Uncirculated, would catalog between our 'well preserved' and 'fully uncirculated' values.. The coin is in excellent shape with almost no wear and absolutely no problems like stains and scratches. The reason this is not a fully uncirculated coin is because it has lost its frosty, fresh-from-the-mint luster, probably from being exposed to damp air for long periods of time. A sealed numismatic holder would have solved that problem.

Now look at the coin marked VF for Very Fine. There is very noticable wear, especially on the high points like the eagle and snake, and the cap. Most coin collectors call this amount of wear VF, or 'average circulated.' There is a faint scratch across the rays, so that will bump the value downward a little.

The bottom coin is marked XF Cleaned, XF meaning Extra Fine or 'well preserved.' There is actually less wear on the XF coin than the VF coin, so under normal circumstances, the XF would be worth more than the VF. But, it is easy to see that there is something un-natural about the XF coin. In fact, someone has cleaned or polished it with harsh chemicals. That sends collector appeal down to zero, and serious, knowledgeable collectors will not pay more than silver value for this coin.

A coin dealer would probably pay one-half of the catalog price for the AU and VF pieces. An honest dealer would not buy the cleaned XF coin, but a shyster would buy it for $5 and try to sell it to an inexperienced collector for the full XF price.

Coin collecting is a rough hobby to get started in. It is certainly a buyer beware situation. Learn the ropes first and you won't get stung.
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