1 Peso Silver 1959

The 1959 peso is a silver piece of .720 fineness that weighs 16.08 grams and measures 34.5 millimeters in diameter, with a reeded edge. The obverse shows the National Coat of Arms with the legend "Estados Unidos Mexicanos," and the reverse features the bust of José María Morelos y Pavón, the design that defined this denomination during a good part of the 20th century. It was struck by the Casa de Moneda de México (the Mexican Mint).

This type of peso, known among collectors as "el Morelos," belongs to the series that circulated between 1947 and 1967. It was the last family of Mexican pesos with considerable silver content before the metal gradually disappeared from circulation. The face of the Siervo de la Nación (Servant of the Nation, a title given to Morelos) on a coin used every day made this piece one of the most recognizable of its time, and today it is among the first to reach the hands of anyone starting to take an interest in Mexican silver.

For the collector, the 1959 peso is an affordable piece and a natural entry point to the Morelos series, but its real value comes down to condition. Examples that circulated are everywhere; the ones that keep original luster and fine detail in Morelos's hair are another story. Since it is .720 silver, it always carries its intrinsic value as well, which puts a floor under the price even in low grades.

Mexican circulating peso coins from the second half of the 20th century were minted in alloys that changed according to the cost of metals and inflationary processes: .720 silver in denominations $1, $5, $10, $25 during the 1940s-50s; cupronickel from the 1970s on; aluminum bronze and stainless steel in the 1980s; pieces with figures (Hidalgo, Cuauhtemoc, Juarez, Madero) in the late 1980s just before the transition to Nuevos Pesos in 1992. 1959 corresponds to the period in which this variant was in circulation.