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 MEXICO 467 ered. The quantity of silver annually extracted is estimated at 500 tons, and that of gold at & ton and a half. Almost one half of the total yield is derived from the three great mining dis- tricts of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Catorce. In 1803 the shaft of the Valenciana mine, which yields an average annual profit of $500,- 000, had reached a depth of 1,670 ft., being the deepest hitherto opened by the hand of man. The value of the precious metals from the Mexican mines, from the conquest down to 1826, was as follows: 1521 to 1803, $2,- 027,952,000; 1803 to 1810, $161,000,000; 1810 to 1826, $180,000,000 ; total, $2,368,- 552,000. The events of the war of indepen- dence constrained many mine owners, mostly Creoles, to emigrate ; and a number of tho most productive mines are still in ruins, notwith- standing the efforts made to reclaim them by foreign capitalists. The whole of the gold and silver extracted from the mines of Mexico up to 1870 is estimated at $4,200,000,000. The aeven principal mines of San Luis Potosi alone produced in 1868 silver to the value of $2,- 176,890 26. The state of Sinaloa is said to be literally covered with silver mines, the foreign property in which is distributed as follows : American, $2,000,000; Spanish, $1,450,000; English, $250,000; and German, $50,000. Mex- icans there work so many mines and on so small a scale, that accurate statistics concern- ing them cannot be obtained. Scientific ex- plorers, who visited the Sinaloa mines in 1872, reported that those on the Pacific slopes would be the great source of the supply of silver for the next century. In 1870 there were in Oajaca 83 silver and 40 gold mines ; in Sonora, 144, chiefly yielding gold, besides 583 in which, although very productive, the works were sus- pended. The mines during the colonial pe- riod were crown property, and those who worked them paid one fifth of the product to the king. When Mexico became indepen- dent they were declared public property, and miners were required to pay into the national treasury only a small percentage of the yield. Even this tax was afterward abolished, and any one can, by right of discovery, denounce or record a mine, and obtain authority to work a certain number of varas free of tribute. A slight tax is however imposed on melting and coining it, amounting in 1873 to $166,590 14 for the whole republic. Although the ancient Aztecs do not appear to have possessed regu- larly stamped coin, their commerce was not exclusively confined to exchange of commodi- ties; they had certain signs of the values of different articles, which consequently took the place of money, and of which Clavigero enu- merates five kinds. One of these was cacao beans, counted by xiquipitlis or lots of 8,000, or by sacks of 24,000 each. For articles of daily necessity the usual money was scraps of cotton cloth called patolcuacJitli ; expen- sive objects were paid for in grains of gold carried in quills; and for the cheapest arti- cles copper pieces cut in the shape of a T were used. After the conquest the first mint was established in Mexico in 1538 by Don Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy. The coinage of colonial times was distinguished into four subdivisions : moneda maeuquina, ir- regular polygonal coin stamped without a ma- chine, and having a cross, two lions, and two columns on one side, and the name of the reign- ing Spanish sovereign on the other, extending from 1535 to 1Y31 ; moneda columnaria, or pillar coin, I732-'71 ; moneda de busto, or bust coin, 1772-1821 ; and the coinage struck during the war of independence, 1810-'21. Since the establishment of independence there have been two distinct categories, the imperial and the republican. The total issue of macu- quina coins was $760,765,406; pillar coins, $461,518,225; bust coins, $929,298,327; total coinage of the colonial period, $2,151,581,958, of which $2,121,474,024 was executed at the mint of the capital, and $30,107,934 (all bust coins) at the mints of Chihuahua, Durango, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Sombrerete, and Za- catecas; $2,082,322,235 was silver, $68,716,- 830 gold, and $542,893 copper. There were in 1873 eleven mints in the republic: Durango, Guadalajara, Oajaca, Culiacan, Hermosillo, and Alamos, under the direction of the central gov- ernment, and Mexico, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, and Chihuahua, rented by private individuals; and the aggregate coinage at all of them in the year 1872-'3 was $20,374,- 554, of which $19,686,434 was silver. The total coinage in the Mexican mints from their foundation to June 30, 1873, was as follows: Colonial period $2,151,581.958 Period of independence (lS21-"73) 793,773,655 Total $2,945,855,618 Of the specie coined in 1869-'70 ($20,677,021), $17,479,014 was exported, leaving $3,198,007 for the general circulation. Tin is abundant in Michoacan, and still more so in Jalisco; copper is common in both these states and in Guanajuato and Mexico ; and lead is frequently found in almost all the silver mines, and espe- cially in those of Oajaca. In this last state occur vitriol and amethysts, agates, tarquoises, and carnelians, the most remarkable beds of all of which are in Mount Cocola on the confines of Tlaxcala. The galinoeo stone, a black vol- canic product, at times shaded with blue, and susceptible of a high polish, is found in many of the states. Marbles everywhere abound, the green and white varieties of Tecali being very beautiful. Porphyry, jasper, alabaster, rock crystal, talc, various' green stones somewhat resembling emeralds, iron and loadstone (the two last particularly in Chihuahua), are met with in many parts of the Sierra Madre. True serpentine is found in Guanajuato, as are also zinc, antimony, and arsenic. Mercury occurs in that state and elsewhere ; but this commodi- ty, now so extensively used in the amalgamation process, is mostly imported, and at enhanced