The 50 peso banknote, from Family G, entered circulation in Mexico on October 28, 2021. It is printed in polymer and its predominant color is purple. From day one it has had an extremely positive reception. The drawing of an axolotl on the back, called Gorda, was the detail that fascinated people. A year later, its popularity earned it the Banknote of the Year award from the International Banknote Society. This recognition elevated this denomination to an object of collection and worship. More than four years later, the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) announced in a report that 9.8 million Mexicans said they kept or cashed in this note as if it were treasure.
According to Banxico, 83% of the population questioned about the 50 note, or 42.5 million people, “spontaneously” declared that they knew or had heard of the presentation of the coin. More than 50% said they knew him thanks to the axolotl.
On the obverse, this banknote depicts ancient Mexico with a depiction of Greater Tenochtitlan, based on a mural by Diego Rivera. While on the reverse are represented the ecosystem of rivers and lakes, the chinampas, with the axolotl and corn in Xochimilco, in Mexico City, considered cultural heritage of humanity. The model for the creation of the bill was Gorda, one of the six specimens living in Axolotitlán, a museum that preserves, spreads and saves this endemic species in the Mexican capital. Pamela Valencia, director and founder of this space, says she received an invitation from Banxico in 2019 to collaborate on this project.
Staff from the Central Bank of Mexico sent a team to visit the chinampas, farmers in the area, and they learned of the problems faced by this amphibian, which retains some ancient characteristics of salamanders but is closer to frogs and toads. After that visit, Gorda, who is a brown or wild axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) —dark in color—, participated in a six-hour photographic session with five other specimens of his species.
“They could see their colors. How they swam, how they breathed, how they fed. Our job, as specialists, was to take care of the animals at all times and take the temperature into account. The result was that Gordita, the axolotiteit’s what appears on the 50 peso bill. “We only knew this in 2021, the year this law was launched,” Valencia says by phone. This has led to the popular amphibian becoming something of a national mascot. You can still see blankets, towels, cups and stuffed animals, among other types of memorabilia, that were created with the design of the back of the 50 note.
During the conference “The axolotl: its mythical origin, its extraordinary biology and its strength as a cultural symbol”, organized last September by the National College of Mexico City, Juan Villoro, Mexican writer and chronicler, stated that it was his Argentine colleague Julio Cortázar, through the story Axolotlwho placed this example at the center of fantasy literature. He also said that this amphibian is not only an object of scientific study, for its ability to regenerate limbs, but also a symbol of Mexican belonging, as “a chance to recover something of the lost land.”
Banxico specifies that 68% of those interviewed, who answered that they keep or collect this paper currency, own between one and five units; 13% from 6 to 10; 9% from 11 to 20 and 10% more than 20. According to the calculation, if 9.8 million Mexicans kept a 50 bill, it is estimated that about 490 million pesos of this currency, or its approximate equivalent of more than 26 million dollars, would be out of circulation.
“It is something truly unusual. If something is missing in our country, it is money, yet many prefer to keep this bill because they consider it beautiful, as they have said in several polls, and because it represents something very special for us”, Villoro observed in his presentation.
This fascination with the 50 bill has led the collecting and ownership of this coin into the existence of a currency resale market, where prices for paper money can be found ranging between 300,000 and 1.5 million pesos for a single unit. Mario Almela, director of the Numismatic Center of Mexico (Cenumex), explains that, since it is a current coin, its value is that indicated on each of them. “This phenomenon is not exclusively linked to this banknote, but also to several coins that, at the time, received attention for their aesthetic design and appreciative value. They were unfairly overvalued by people outside the numismatic environment who attributed them an unrealistic economic value,” he adds.
However, he mentions that there are important variables that make any product more valuable, on the one hand, scarcity; and then, the question. “There might be a lot of them, but the demand is a lot. In this case and in the previous case, when there are very few of them, then it takes on an extra value. The condition also has an impact. If you find that this item is perfect and has been kept that way, then its value increases. There are also rarities, such as an issue error, although these days they are very rare. In the case of this particular one, the banknote factory of the National Bank of Mexico has very high safety and quality control schemes. Finding a banknote on the road Done poorly, it is very rare that this would really give added value to the invoice,” says the director of Cenumex.
Today, Gorda is a geriatric axolotl, Valencia says, who is no longer on daily display at the Axolotl Museum, because they want her to be able to stay with them for a few more years. The founder of Axolotitlán defends the idea of including these amphibians on the 50 euro banknote, because she believes it was a “great strategy” to bring the general public closer to an emblematic species that, until a few years ago, went unnoticed.
“Before you see souvenirs of jaguars, of hummingbirds. Today we can see how the axolotl is introduced into our culture, into our daily life. We can’t save something if we don’t know it exists. Putting it on a banknote (an axolotl) in people’s hands opens a door for curiosity, knowledge and then action to make concrete changes in improving ecosystems, saving animals. I think it’s a great first step that opens a great portal towards things that will improve the conditions of this species,” concludes Valencia.
