Bicentennial of National Independence

Popularly known as "el cabezon" (the big head), the 20 pesos coin commemorating the Bicentennial of the Consummation of National Independence is one of the most widespread bimetallic pieces in Mexico. The Banco de Mexico struck and officially issued it in 2021, with a mintage of 262.8 million pieces, which makes it a very affordable coin for anyone starting to collect modern commemoratives.

This is a bimetallic piece from the C1 family, made up of an aluminum-bronze ring and a cupronickel center. It weighs 12.67 grams and measures 30 millimeters in diameter. If you are interested in this series, it is worth checking out other sister pieces: the Centennial of the death of General Emiliano Zapata Salazar and the 700 years since the lunar founding of the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

In uncirculated grade it has a reference price of 90 pesos, based on a purchase validated by the Pesoteca catalog in 2026. The value changes with the state of preservation: a circulated piece is worth less, while one in a sealed blister pack trades above a loose UNC example.

Notice the dates this piece carries: 1821 and 2021. It doesn't celebrate the Grito de Dolores of 1810, but the 200 years of the consummation of Independence, the close of a war that began eleven years earlier.

On September 27, 1821, the same date on which Banxico put the coin into circulation, the Trigarante Army entered Mexico City in triumph. That army was born of the Plan de Iguala and the embrace of Acatempan between Agustín de Iturbide and Vicente Guerrero, which united royalists and insurgents under three guarantees: religion, independence, and union. The next day the Act of Independence was signed. Mexico was, at last, a free country.

That's why the reverse brings together three faces from different stages of the struggle: Miguel Hidalgo, who started it; José María Morelos, who gave it political form; and Vicente Guerrero, who held out until closing the cycle. The piece honors the long chain, not a single moment.

Why it carries three faces

The independence struggle was a relay race of eleven years, and this coin (which on the street they call the cabezona for its three busts) tells it with three faces. Miguel Hidalgo started it: the priest of Dolores who gave the Grito in the early hours of September 16, 1810, and lit the fuse; he was executed by firing squad in 1811. José María Morelos gave it political form: he drafted the Sentimientos de la Nación in 1813, the document that first dreamed of an independent Mexico with its own laws; he was executed in 1815. Vicente Guerrero closed the cycle: he held out for years in the mountains of the south when the movement was nearly dead, and in 1821 he sealed the Embrace of Acatempan with Agustín de Iturbide. From that agreement was born the Plan de Iguala and its three guarantees (religion, independence, and union), the same ones that give the Trigarante Army its name and painted the three stripes of the first flag. It all fits: three guarantees, three stripes, three faces.

How to identify it

Family C1, dodecagonal (12 sides), 30 mm, 12.67 grams, aluminum-bronze ring and silvered alpaca core, discontinuous reeded edge. The reverse's signs are unmistakable: the three busts in profile facing left (Hidalgo, Morelos, and Guerrero together), the legend BICENTENARIO DE LA INDEPENDENCIA NACIONAL along the upper rim, and in the exergue the denomination $20 with 1821 on the left and 2021 on the right. The Angel of Independence appears as a latent image depending on the angle of the light, and the microtext LIBERTAD, tiny, can only be read with a loupe. Don't mix it up with the other two 20-peso coins of 2021 (the 700 years of Tenochtitlan and the 500 years of historical memory): the cabezona is the only one with three human faces and the years 1821-2021.

What it's really worth

Around 262.8 million cabezones were struck: each Mexican could have two in their pocket. With that mintage, and having truly circulated, there's no scarcity, and without scarcity there's no high price.

Condition	Approximate value
Circulated (the one you carry in your bag)	20 to 25 pesos, its face value
Good condition, no spots	25 to 50 pesos
Uncirculated (UNC), with luster	up to 90 pesos as a ceiling

If a seller offers it to you for 500, 5,000, or "3 million," it's a smokescreen listing that nobody is going to pay. The cabezona is for collecting and having the complete series of commemorative 20 pesos, not for investing. To compare real prices, check the store directory.