I keep, as a curiousity, a Peso coin from long ago when my Poppa used to take the family to Tiajuana on some weekends. It's an old coin, made of aluminum I think, and I keep it because I once saw the peso drop to 2,000 peso's to the US dollar. On the face of it then, it was absolutely worthless, without any value at all. It cost in fact more to mint the coin than it was valued at. And yet - to me the worth of it is in a lesson from it, because I realised I would probably never see any more of them - therefore it was rare, and therefore it was worth (at least to me) something beyond what it originally did, or does now.

It also means something to me that it was minted in 1959, and I was born in December of 1958.

Currently the peso is at .0924 to 1 US dollar. I also have a few cinco centavo pieces...

But I don't remember the exact year of the mexican economic crash, or all of the circumstances. If anyone can help refresh my memory, I would be very grateful. I think it was during the eighties, or early nineties. I remember being in Tiajuana on my own (I was stationed in San Diego with the US NAVY, but grew up next door to Mexico so had little fear) - and people were leaving banks with large sacks of peso coins, loading them into cars presumably to exchange them for americano currency before the rate fell any more. I had also heard of people taking them to recycling centers because the aluminum they were made of was worth more by weight than the face value of the coins themselves...

It was a terrible time for many.

~Greywolf

PS: I am told that "Tiajuana" means "Tia Juana" or in english: "Aunt Jane". I always wondered why that should be the name of a border town... Does anyone know the history of this? I can only discover so much myself, being a Norte Americano Gabacho barbarian who does not speak so much espanol, and that only after thinking about it for a while!

PPS: Que dice "barbarian" en espanol???

 

BARBARIAN = BARBARO, a word taken from the Romans who despicted the nothern europeans as Barbarians (calling them savages), and the word´s origin is that the romans said those "savages" speech was like hearing the sheeps go bah bahh bahhh, therefore the word "barbarian"... about the peso fall i might imagine the reasons but don´t know the history, and about Tijuana i don´t think that story they told you was true, maybe some mexican joke at the gringos who believed them... lol

 

Es un posibilidad....

I dunno!

Every rumour has an origin in some way...

Que la histroridad de la llamo "Tiajuana"???

(with apologies for spelling errors)

 

Was back in the eighties and early nighties when this happend (89-91 i think), i remember exchange rates from 3000 pesos or more for 1 dollar, and the story you just told its true, people were taking their savings from Mexican Banks to exchange it to american currency.

btw barbarian means barbaro in spanish.

about Tijuana you are right it comes from Tia (aunt) Juana (a name aka jane in english) there are 2 versions about the word Tijuana, one said something about a prist that didnt understood a native word so he just translate it to spanish.

and the other talks about a Big RAnch called Tia Juana that was given to some dude from the Governor of Baja. but i dunno much about it.

i was born in Mexicali the capital city of Baja.

www.tijuana.gob.mx

 

Yep, inflation got 'em good: I'm a millionaire!