Since 1982 the Mexican Libertad has also been issued as a silver coin.
In contrast to the gold coin, the silver version is not accepted as legal
tender in Mexico. Hugo Salinas Price, president of the Asociacin Cvica Mexicana Pro Plata
(Mexican Civic Association Pro Silver) in Mexico City, has been fighting in favour of the
reintroduction of silver as a nationally accepted means of payment for years. In 1979 the
Mexican parliament passed the legislative proposal of former Mexican president Jos Lpez
Portillo to re-establish the silver Libertad as legal tender. The new law, however, had a
constructional flaw. Portillo's law worked on the principle that every Libertad silver ounce
could be exchanged at the current market value by the central bank, Banco de Mexico, into paper
currency. For two years the Mexican population used the silver Libertad as currency in its daily
transactions. In December 1981 the law was abolished. The constructional flaw in accepting silver
as an official Mexican currency was due to the lack of a nominal, irreducible value that should
have been featured on the coin. This important clause was omitted from Portillo's law. Nowadays,
the Asociacin Cvica Mexicana Pro Plata campaigns for the inclusion of this clause in a new legislative
proposal. Should Hugo Salinas Price's campaign be successful, the value of each minted coin in circulation
as currency would fluctuate according to the current silver price and could be exchanged into paper money
by the Banco de Mexico.
Source:
http://www.goldmoney.com/gold-research/gold-coins-the-mexican-libertad.html
