A Historic Port
Veracruz’s 1519 foundation is a story of a city and port that moved between sites. La Antigua’s 1525 chapter and earlier Indigenous Huitzilapan complicate a single-place narrative.
Read the story →MEXICO CIRCULATING COINS
20 Pesos
Veracruz (2020)
Five Centuries. A New Coin Format.
Released on 22 April 2020, this 20-peso coin marks 500 years since the founding of the city and port of Veracruz. Its dates, 1519–2019, belong to the anniversary. A ship and the municipal palace share the reverse of the first C1 circulation design: twelve-sided, bimetallic and equipped with microtext and a latent image.
ObverseNational Emblem
ReverseVeracruz · 1519–2019
12.67 gNominal mass
30.0 mmDiameter
12-sidedDodecagonal
BimetallicBronze ring · alpaca centre
Latent imageMicrotext and more
2020Year of release
Banco de MéxicoIssuer
Design Details
A sixteenth-century vessel, the municipal palace and the anniversary dates identify the foundation commemorative. Read the full coin before examining its smaller details.
Read the story →Security Features
Latent image
Locate the small 20 field.
Microtext
500 VERACRUZ
Microtext and a latent 20 belong to the exact reverse. A still photograph helps locate them, but cannot show the whole optical effect.
Read the story →In the Series
Veracruz launched the twelve-sided C1 generation in 2020. It belongs to a wider record of 26 released 20-peso commemorative subjects, spanning C and C1.
Read the story →LOOK CLOSER
The details behind the design
Identity, history and materials—read together.
01
A Historic Port
The commemoration traces Veracruz’s municipal and port foundation to 1519. Its history involves several sites rather than one unchanged settlement: Quiahuiztlán, La Antigua from 1525, and the later city opposite San Juan de Ulúa belong to that sequence. Indigenous Huitzilapan predates the colonial narrative.
02
Design Details
A sixteenth-century vessel appears at the left and the municipal palace at the right. The full perimeter legend names the 500th anniversary of the city and port. The $20 value sits below the architecture, framed by 1519 and 2019. The vessel is a representation, not a securely identified named ship.
03
Security Features
The reverse includes a latent 20 and the microtext 500 VERACRUZ. These features sit above the principal ship and palace composition. A still photograph records one lighting angle; it cannot demonstrate the full optical effect or authenticate a physical coin.
04
In the Series
Veracruz introduced family C1 in April 2020. Its twelve-sided format differs from the round C commemoratives. The 26 released 20-peso commemorative subjects recorded through 13 September 2026 comprise twelve C and fourteen C1 designs; the regular Hidalgo coin is outside that commemorative total.
05
Three Dates, Three Different Meanings
1519–2019 is the anniversary span on the coin. The enabling decree was published on 25 July 2019. Actual circulation began on 22 April 2020. Keeping those fields distinct prevents a 2019 anniversary from becoming an invented 2019 public release.
06
Architecture as a Commemorative Device
The palace connects the design to municipal identity. Its appearance on a coin celebrating 1519 does not establish that the depicted building stood in that year. Equally, the modern port’s location cannot be projected unchanged onto all earlier settlements. The coin compresses a long civic history into a small metal surface.
07
The C1 Construction
The nominal 12.67 g total combines a 5.51 g nickel-silver centre with a 7.16 g aluminium-bronze ring. Nickel silver, also called alpaca, is a copper–nickel–zinc alloy, not silver bullion. The legal proportions are Cu65/Ni10/Zn25 for the centre and Cu92/Al6/Ni2 for the ring; the edge has interrupted reeding.
08
Two Veracruz Commemorations
Do not confuse this city-and-port foundation coin with the round 20-peso coin for the heroic events of Veracruz in 1914. The anniversary, format and principal design are different. The photographed obverse and reverse are official design references; they are not represented as two certified views of one specimen.
THE OBJECT
Specifications & material eras
| Property | Specification |
|---|---|
| Face value | 20 MXN |
| Family / format | C1 · 30 mm · 12.67 g |
| Shape / edge | 12-sided · interrupted reeding |
| Centre | Nickel silver · Cu 65%, Ni 10%, Zn 25% · 5.51 g |
| Outer ring | Aluminium bronze · Cu 92%, Al 6%, Ni 2% · 7.16 g |
| First circulation | 2020-04-22 |
| Anniversary | 1519–2019 |
Sources & image credits
Banco de México specifications, original legal texts and institutional histories. Information checked through 13 September 2026.
Open the source list
- Banco de México · Older C 20-peso commemoratives
- Banco de México · Veracruz foundation C1
- Banco de México · Four FIFA 2026 C1 designs
- Banco de México / DOF · Veracruz foundation decree, 25 July 2019
- Banco de México / DOF · La Antigua historic-monument decree
- Banco de México / DOF · Millennium decree, 6 January 2000
- DOF, Banco de México official mirror · DECRETO por el que se establecen las características de una moneda conmemorativa del Centenario de la Gesta Heroica del Puerto de Veracruz.
Coin design references: Banco de México. Large 1-peso photographs: Numismatica Quetzalcoatl (Gabriel Herrera), via Numista, CC BY 4.0. Large bronze 50-centavo photographs: Essor Prof, via Numista. Steel 50-centavo photographs: montana2011, via Numista, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
1-peso photographs · Bronze 50 centavos · Steel 50 centavos · CC BY 4.0 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Coin photographs remain unchanged; layout masks remove only exterior background. Detail views are labelled crops. Landscapes are landscape artwork, not documentary photographs or coin-design evidence. Coin images are enlarged and are not all shown at one physical scale.
Sun Stone: Rosemania / Chez Cåsver · CC BY 2.0 · Layout crop; original photograph unchanged.
