Eight ideas for collecting current banknotes from the Bank of Mexico (aka G series) (data as of December 31, 2025)
By: Cedrian López-Bosch Martineau
Many people enjoy collecting banknotes, and collections can be as general or specific as the collector's taste. When starting out in this hobby, it's difficult to grasp the scope of what you're getting into. Over time, as you complete one milestone, the next one almost immediately arises, and the collection begins to deepen. We find some generalist collectors, but there are more specialized collectors, that is, those with a clear focus, whether it's a region or a country, and they seek to acquire all possible types and varieties, be they dates, signatures, series, or any other variation. Each country has its own challenges, but Mexico is a particular case, attracting many collectors from around the world, but over time, it also discourages them when they see the depth to which one can delve.
This article aims to offer eight ways to collect The latest series of banknotes from the Bank of Mexico, from the most accessible to the most comprehensive, allows each reader to choose a path according to their interests, time, and budget. To begin, I'll provide some background on notaphily in Mexico, the banknotes of the Central Bank, and the characteristics of the latest series to explain its variations, which are summarized in this table.
In summary
a) Notaphily in Mexico: a tradition of complexity
First of all, it's important to clarify that while some issues fall outside this classification, Mexican banknote collecting has three main periods: the era of private issuing banks, the era of the Mexican Revolution, and the era of the Bank of Mexico. The reality is that we have a vast number of banknotes, some very rare, others quite common, but let's assume that someone starting out will begin with the last period. Therefore, let's focus on this last one.
The Bank of Mexico classifies its issues into “families” that share characteristics with each other and, although not without questioning, has named them in alphabetical order starting with AA printed by the ABNC and AA printed by the local banknote factory, followed by A, B, C up to G which began to be put into circulation in 2018 and continues to be issued.
Duane Douglas documented thousands of variations of the banknotes printed by the ABNC. The one-peso note alone has 223 series and 1,970 subseries. It's legitimate to wonder if any contemporary collector imagined that this issue of "narrow" banknotes would become a decades-long project. The truth is that Mr. Douglas documented the variations by date, series, and subseries, but he never bothered to document the possible combinations of signatures and passwords, and therefore, except for the one-peso note, his records are incomplete. I know several people who have undertaken the collection by series and subseries, and some of them have completed a denomination or are close to doing so, but the truth is that it's increasingly difficult to achieve such collections, especially if someone intends to collect all the denominations retrospectively. Therefore, I would think there's a better chance of achieving this with the current series. Today we know that the life of a family is around 10 years, at most 15, but even if its life is shorter than that of ABNC banknotes, as we will see below, the amounts issued mean that the possible combinations of varieties can be even larger.
What is the G family and why is it special?
With the aim of making it easier for an audience outside of Mexico to find banknotes and their variants among those currently in circulation, I will focus on the "G series," although in the future I hope to be able to assess the effort required to collect other series. Another reason I like to start with the G series is that, in addition to the widespread dissemination available today through the internet and social media, the fact that two of its denominations, the 100 and 50 pesos, received the Banknote of the Year (BNOY) award from the International Bank Note Society (IBNS) in 2020 and 2021, respectively, has given them considerable popularity. Finally, another aspect that makes these banknotes attractive is their affordability, as the lowest denomination has a face value of only 95 euro cents and the highest denomination is just over 47 euros.
A few years ago, when the latest series of banknotes was being introduced, I published this article with some hypotheses. Today, we have much more information and certainly many more examples to analyze. In 2013, the Governing Board of the Bank of Mexico approved the start of the research process for the creation and introduction of a new series of banknotes. This process included defining characteristics, security features, a proposed structure, haptic and visual perception studies, and multiple technical and thematic analyses, as well as meetings with various expert groups and focus groups that led to a phased process of preparation and issuance. The first banknote in this process was the 100-peso note commemorating the Centennial of the Constitution (2017), followed by the 500- peso (2018), 200-peso (2019), 1000-peso , 100 -peso (2020), 20-peso , and 50- peso (2021) denominations, as described below.
Although it should be clear that all these banknotes belong to the G series, there is some confusion regarding two pieces: The 2017 commemorative 100-peso note was part of the research and testing process for the new series, but it does not formally belong to the G series . Instead, it is cataloged within the F series and is even included in its accounting records, as it is interleaved within the series/folios of that series. Therefore, this article mentions it only as technical background, not as a collector's item within the G series. On the other hand, although it was not originally considered part of the G series, since the proposed structure ranged from 50 to 1000 pesos (possibly 2000 if the economy required it), it was decided to issue a 20-peso note commemorating the Bicentennial of the Consummation of Independence. Therefore, for the purposes of this article, we will highlight the Constitution banknote and consider all the others.
An additional point is that despite advances in digitization, a significant amount of cash still circulates in Mexico (according to the National Survey of Financial Inclusion, 85% of transactions under 500 pesos, or 24 euros, are still made in cash, as are 74% of payments above that amount). Therefore, a thorough study was conducted on the optimal combination of currency denominations and the substrates to be used. Thus, the Bank of Mexico decided to introduce two substrates: polymer for the lowest and most frequently circulated denominations (20, 50, and 100 pesos), and cotton-based security paper for the higher denominations (200, 500, and 1000 pesos). It should be noted that the former have smaller dimensions, allowing for larger print runs—60 million pieces each (60 pieces per sheet)—while the latter, due to their larger dimensions, only have a print run of 50 million pieces each (50 pieces per sheet). This is important, as will be seen below.
How are banknotes issued in Mexico?
According to the Bank of Mexico Law , banknotes must contain, among other characteristics, the series and number (folio), the date of the issuance agreement, the facsimile signatures of a member of the Governing Board and the Chief Cashier (art. 5).
Series and folio
The series and serial number serve to identify each banknote, but also to organize, count, and control the issuance. Previously, the series was a separate letter from the serial number and required printing in a different process. This, at least in the F series, meant changing the printing plates with each series change, that is, every 50 or 60 million banknotes, which was laborious and expensive. Starting with the G series, the series was incorporated into the serial number prefix, allowing each series to have 240 million banknotes, thus reducing costs and increasing production efficiency.
Order (date) of issue
When the Board of Governors instructs the Bank's administration to issue the banknotes, the Bank generates the corresponding instructions for their printing with the date of the order and the signatures of the Cashier and the members of the Board that must be used.
Issuance orders are placed according to the Bank's estimates to meet the demand for banknotes due to declared economic growth, the replacement of worn banknotes, and the necessary stock levels. There may be one or more issuance orders throughout the year. The following table summarizes the known issuance orders through December 2025. It is not necessary to read it line by line: its purpose is to show the concentration of demand for certain denominations at specific times and the increasing complexity of prefixes and dates, especially for 500-peso banknotes.
Family issuance orders with denominations and prefix ranges
This information was compiled using issuance orders from the Bank of Mexico's transparency portal and observations of banknotes in circulation. A table tracking confirmed prefixes can be found at the following link to Moneypedia.de.
While the order of the prefixes is sequential, as you can see, there are some anomalies on the 500-peso bills on three dates: August 21 and November 26, 2018, and January 30, 2019, where the prefixes are alternated. I have not yet been able to determine the reason for this change.
** Although they are in the printing orders, I have not been able to corroborate the existence of banknotes of the following ranges corresponding to specific print runs: 20 pesos DU-DZ nor EM-ET; 50 pesos none after EM; 100 pesos EG-EM nor after GF; 200 pesos after JT; and 500 pesos UD-UH, UP-UT, VE-VJ, VV-VZ nor after WQ.
*** Although it has not yet been put into circulation, the fact that a new 20-peso note carries the prefix AA surely means that it is a new design.
Signatures
The banknotes bear the facsimile signatures of a member of the Governing Board and the Chief Cashier. The Governor signs first, followed by the Deputy Governors in order of seniority. All are nominated by the Federal Executive and ratified by the Senate. The Governor serves a six-year term, and the Deputy Governors serve eight-year terms. The position of Chief Cashier was normally held by the Regional Cashier of the Central Region. From 2011 to 2024, the Director General of Issuance fulfilled these duties, and after their retirement in February of that year, the Director of Cash Programming and Distribution signed the banknotes. In this series, with a couple of exceptions when the Governing Board was not complete, each denomination bears the signatures of all five members of the Governing Board and the Chief Cashier. Since the first agreement in 2017, there have been several changes; currently, there are 12 members of the Governing Board and two Chief Cashiers: Alejandro Alegre Rabiela and Isabel Morales Pasantes.
Prepared by the author using information from the Bank of Mexico. The Governor appears in darker blue.
Although the five members of the Governing Board were formally still in office as of the agreement of November 26, 2018, only three signatures appear on that date due to the early resignation of Roberto del Cueto Legaspi for health reasons (effective November 30) and the end of Manuel Ramos Francia's term (December 31). Similarly, on January 16, 2023, there are only four signatories, as it was not until two days later that Sub-Governor Omar Mejía was ratified by the Senate to fill that position.
In addition to the 20-peso banknote commemorating the Bicentennial of the Consummation of Independence, the G family has several commemorative issues that are distinguished only by a commemorative legend, one for the 25th anniversary of the autonomy of the Bank of Mexico, another for the 30th anniversary of that same event, both only on the 200-peso banknote and another for the centenary of the founding of the central institute that is on all denominations from 50 to 1000 pesos.
Therefore, based on the analysis of these characteristics -substrate, denomination, commemorative legend, date of issue, combination of signatures, prefix- I propose to anyone who wants to start a collection of Mexican banknotes eight ideas on how to approach the banknotes of the G family of the Bank of Mexico so that they can choose the one they like best and that suits their abilities and budget:
Depending on how many of these variables are considered, a collection from the G series can range from three banknotes to several thousand , and further segmentation is possible, perhaps to delve deeper into a subgroup such as the substrate or a specific denomination. Below, I outline these suggestions and estimate the effort involved:
1) Minimum collection per substrate (3 banknotes)
A collector can start by collecting banknotes based on their substrate; thus, they could collect three polymer banknotes.
20 pesos
50 pesos
100 pesos
or three cotton paper banknotes:
200 pesos
500 pesos
1000 pesos
2) Minimum collection per denomination (6 banknotes)
20 pesos
50 pesos
100 pesos
200 pesos
500 pesos
1000 pesos
3) Ordinary and commemorative types (13 banknotes).
You could also try to collect the banknotes of all denominations in their ordinary and commemorative versions, that is, one of each from 2) plus one of each of each legend, that is, those of the 25th and 30th Anniversary of the Autonomy of the Bank of Mexico, which appear in a single denomination and those of the Centenary of the Bank of Mexico that appears on the 50 peso banknotes and above dated from mid-2024 and 2025:
20 pesos: 1
50 pesos: 2
100 pesos: 2
200 pesos: 4
500 pesos: 2
1000 pesos: 2
And if I only collected banknotes with a polymer substrate, there would be five banknotes, and if they were only paper, there would be eight.
4) Collect by signatures: people and combinations
If your goal were to focus on the signatures, you could have several options: 12 banknotes , if you were looking for the signature of each member of the Governing Board who have signed in this family regardless of the teller; or 17 banknotes if you wanted one of each possible signature combination; 54 banknotes if you were looking for all the board members of all denominations or 83 banknotes if you wanted one of each signature combination per denomination:
20 pesos: 7 members and 12 combinations
50 pesos: 7 members and 12 combinations
100 pesos: 8 members and 13 combinations
200 pesos: 11 members and 16 combinations
500 pesos: 12 members and 17 combinations
1000 pesos: 9 members and 13 combinations
If I only collected polymer banknotes, these numbers would be 8, 13, 22 and 37, and if they were only paper banknotes, they would be 12, 17, 32 and 46, respectively.
An additional alternative could be to give it a gender focus and collect only banknotes signed by women; thus, there could be three banknotes signed by female members of the Board, or three banknotes signed by two women, or nine combinations in which there was at least one woman.
5) Issuance order by denomination (79 banknotes)
One could try to collect one banknote from each of the 37 printing orders, regardless of denomination, or a collection of 79 banknotes, if one were collected for each printing order date for each denomination :
20 pesos: 12
50 pesos: 7
100 pesos: 11
200 pesos:14
500 pesos: 27
1000 pesos: 8
These numbers would be reduced to 30 if they were only made of polymer and 49 if they were only made of paper substrate
6) Order of issue + signature + denomination (400 banknotes) if one of each denomination is collected from each signature of each date, only up to the last verified prefixes:
20 pesos: 59
50 pesos: 35
100 pesos: 64
200 pesos: 68
500 pesos: 133
1000 pesos: 40
There would be only 158 if it were only polymer ones and 241 only paper substrate ones.
7) Collection by prefixes (1141 banknotes)
I could try to gather one of each of the prefixes from each denomination ( only up to the last verified prefixes , it will surely increase shortly):
20 pesos: 108 (AA-EM)
50 pesos: 108 (AA-EM)
100 pesos: 150 (AA-GF)
200 pesos: 210 (AA-JT)
500 pesos: 495 (AA-WQ)
1000 pesos: 70 (AA-CX)
If they were only polymer ones, there would be 366 and 784 only those with paper substrate.
8) The total collection: signatures × prefixes × denomination (5633 banknotes)
Finally, assuming that the observations I have made were complete, to date one could collect 5633 banknotes , that is, one of each signature of each prefix per denomination: 4,5
20 pesos: 534
50 pesos: 540
100 pesos: 744
200 pesos: 1040
500 pesos: 2425
1000 pesos: 350
If they were only polymer ones, there would be 1824 and 3910 only those with paper substrate.
As I've mentioned several times, these numbers aren't final. We still expect this series to remain in circulation for several more years, so even beyond the printing orders already issued or authorized, we'll surely see many more banknotes. We might also see new designs, such as the 20-peso note, or, as happened with the D and F series, revisions could be made to update and reinforce some security features, resulting in a G1 variant. We also expect there may be further changes in the Board of Governors, so we anticipate many more variants as this series continues to be issued.
The intention of this article is not to scare or discourage anyone, but to put the scale of a contemporary family into perspective . Each collector decides how far they want to go. In the G family, even a modest collection can be coherent, complete, and deeply satisfying.