Mexico: Augustine I Iturbide Consulado medal 1822,...

Description

Augustine I Iturbide Consulado medal 1822, G29a, MS62 NGC, a handsome gray-toned example of this excellent portrait piece, the emperor facing right and looking oh so Napoleonic (as he desperately wished to look!), engraved by Medina, referring to the "event" (as Grove calls it) at Guadalajara. Iturbide rose and fell all within the period of about three years. He was at the right place at the right time when the Spanish viceroy sent him, as a mere colonel, in command of a royalist force to eliminate the last of the freedom fighters of 1810-20, Vicente Guerrero, but Iturbide was no Napoleon Bonaparte, his hero. Unable to overwhelm Guerrero he joined forces with him, turned the troops around, and "took" Mexico City in the autumn of 1821. Much like a Roman general entering Rome might have hoped to do, Iturbide got his troops to shout his name out in the streets as emperor, and the feckless congress simply gave in, and awarded him an Imperial Crown in May of 1822. The event signaled the end of Spanish control of Mexico, and real independence was now a fact. This piece and similar tribute medals were created, along with a very limited coinage, all showing Iturbide looking remarkably like Napoleon! But he was no charismatic hero to the people of Mexico, who soon tired of his antics. When revolts broke out, Santa Anna (and ironically Guerrero) marched against him, and he abdicated rather than die, in March of 1823. He fled to Italy. Like Napoleon, within months he attempted to "come back," but failed again and ended up a captive, and soon executed, dying by firing squad in July of 1824. Chaos would reign for some years in Mexico, but then a new Republic blossomed, and with it new coinages. Iturbide was quickly forgotten, but his charming coins and medals remain in memoriam.

Metal: Silver

More information about Mexican Coins. See also: Mexico World Coin Nationality.

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