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Right on the Money – The Beginning
and the End
Don Cleveland LM-136
One of the most complicated and bizarre objects to
appear on a banknote is the illustration of the Aztec Sun
Calendar on Mexico’s paper money. This design was used
on the face of Mexican one-peso banknotes from 1936 to 1970,
and again, in a slightly modified form, on the back of Mexico’s
500-peso banknotes between 1979 and 1984. The Standard
Catalog of World Paper Money, Volumes II and III, lists 24 issued
types and one specimen of the one-peso design (P-28 a-e;
P-38a-d; P-46a, b; P-56a, b; and P-59a-l, and s) and five types of
the later 500-peso design (P-69, P-75a, b; and P-79a, b).
The Sun Calendar represents one of two calendars employed
by the Aztecs. The first of 365 days provided seasonal information
to farmers and marked other yearly occasions. The second used
a 260-day year, the Sun Calendar being an example, and was a
calendar designating religious and ceremonial holidays, festivals,
sacrifices, and dates for auspicious actions, such as going to
war, crowning leaders, and naming children. But hidden in the
calendar are two more sinister dates—the exact date the world was
created 5003 years ago, and the date it will end—21 December
2012. Accompanying panels foretell exactly how the world will be
destroyed—by water, earthquakes and ravaging monsters.
Face of Mexico P-59k, featuring the Aztec calendar Sun Stone. The small
coloured spots on the banknote are platelets imbedded in the paper.
Back of P-59k depicting Mexico’s Independence Monument.
The calendar depicted on Mexico’s banknotes is the largest and
most important of several stone calendars found by archaeologists
over the years in various parts of Mexico. Directly evolved from
Mayan calendars, each differs in details, such as the gods and
objects portrayed, and the way they are rendered, much as one
would find on modern calendars, but the dating information
provided is essentially the same.
The Sun Stone on the banknotes was carved from a single
piece of granite, 3.6 meters (12 feet) in diameter and weighing
24 metric tonnes. Commissioned by the Aztec King Itzcoatl in
A.D. 1427, the sculpture was not completed until 1479, when it
was mounted on top of the temple of Tenochtitlan, in the capital
of the Aztec Empire, now known as Mexico City. The task of
moving such a heavy object to the top of the temple would have
been massive—the Aztecs had no knowledge of the wheel—and it
would have had to have been transported on skids. A chronicle of
the ceremonies accompanying the stone’s placement has been lost
to history, but the celebrations would certainly have gone on for
days and been marked by a massive number of human sacrifices.
Unfortunately for the Aztecs, their beautiful stone calendar
stood for only 40 years. In 1519, Hernan Cortez captured
Tenochtitlan and the Spaniards destroyed the temple and buried
the calendar stone in the city square. It was later dug up and
incorporated in a cathedral built by the Spanish in 1790. In 1856,
the calendar was moved to the National Museum of Mexico
where it can be seen today. For those of us without the time or
means to go to Mexico, we can see it Right on the Money.
IBNS Journal 48.2 61