20 Pesos 2009, Mexico
| in Krause book | Number: 122 |
| Years of issue: | 23.04.2009 |
| Edition: | 425000000 |
| Signatures: | Cajero Principal: Raul Valdes Ramos, Junta de Gobierno: Roberto del Cueto Legaspi |
| Serie: | Polymer Serie |
| Specimen of: | 19.06.2006 |
| Material: | Polymer |
| Size (mm): | 120 x 66 |
| Printer: | Banco de México, Mexico |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Don Benito Juárez García.
This is an image that is manufactured directly onto the cotton-paper and the polymer substrate and can be seen on both sides of the banknote when placed against the light, with all its details and different tones.
Avers:
The engraving on banknote is made after this photo of Benito Juárez.
The key motif is the image of Don Benito Juárez García (1806 - 1872), who became president of Mexico in 1858 and issued the reform laws with the support of the radical liberals the following year. Because of his defense of human freedoms, which served as an example to other Latin American countries, he was proclaimed “Benemérito de las Américas.” In a famous speech, he said: “The people and the government should respect the rights of all. Among individuals, as among nations, respect for others' rights is peace.”
The image of Don Benito Juárez is accompanied by a drawing composed of:
A balancing scale in the foreground, which symbolizes equilibrium and justice, and book, which represents the reform laws enacted in 1859.
On the left side is an inscription: "QUE EL PUEBLO Y EL GOBIERNO RESPETEN LOS DERECHOS DE TODOS. ENTRE LOS INDIVIDUOS, COMO ENTRE LAS NACIONES, EL RESPETO AL DERECHO AJENO ES LA PAZ. MANIFIESTO A LA NACIÓN. 15 DE JULIO DE 1867".
In English: "THE PEOPLE AND GOVERNMENT RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF ALL. BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS, AS AMONG THE NATIONS, RESPECT FOR THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS IS PEACE. MANIFESTO TO THE NATION. JULY 15, 1867".
Denominations in numerals are in lower left and top right corners. Centered, above, in words.
Revers:
Monte Albán is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán Municipality in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (17.043° N, 96.767°W). The site is located on a low mountainous range rising above the plain in the central section of the Valley of Oaxaca where the latter's northern Etla, eastern Tlacolula, and southern Zimatlán & Ocotlán (or Valle Grande) branches meet. The present-day state capital Oaxaca City is located approximately 9 km. (6 mi.) east of Monte Albán.
The partially excavated civic-ceremonial center of the Monte Albán site is situated atop an artificially-leveled ridge, which with an elevation of about 1,940 m (6,400 ft.) above mean sea level rises some 400 m. (1,300 ft.) from the valley floor, in an easily defensible location. In addition to the aforementioned monumental core, the site is characterized by several hundred artificial terraces, and a dozen clusters of mounded architecture covering the entire ridgeline and surrounding flanks (Blanton 1978). The archaeological ruins on the nearby Atzompa and El Gallo hills to the north are traditionally considered to be an integral part of the ancient city as well.
Besides being one of the earliest cities of Mesoamerica, Monte Albán's importance stems also from its role as the pre-eminent Zapotec socio-political and economic center for close to a thousand years. Founded toward the end of the Middle Formative period at around 500 BC, by the Terminal Formative (ca.100 BC-AD 200) Monte Albán had become the capital of a large-scale expansionist polity that dominated much of the Oaxacan highlands and interacted with other Mesoamerican regional states such as Teotihuacan to the north (Paddock 1983; Marcus 1983). The city had lost its political pre-eminence by the end of the Late Classic (ca. AD 500-750) and soon thereafter was largely abandoned. Small-scale reoccupation, opportunistic reutilization of earlier structures and tombs, and ritual visitations marked the archaeological history of the site into the Colonial period.
The etymology of the site's present-day name is unclear, and tentative suggestions regarding its origin range from a presumed corruption of a native Zapotec name such as “Danibaan” (Sacred Hill) to a colonial-era reference to a Spanish soldier by the name Montalbán or to the Alban Hills of Italy. The ancient Zapotec name of the city is not known, as abandonment occurred centuries before the writing of the earliest available ethnohistorical sources.
On the left side is a detail from a gold earring, found in tomb number 7 of the archaeological site.
Above it is an emblem of the Banco de Mexico.
In lower right corner is a fragment of a large mask of the God of Rain and Thunder (Cocijo, the main Zopotec god). The Fragment was taken from an Early Classic representation of Cocijo, found at Monte Albán, aged approximately by 200-500 AD and now in the Museo Nacional de Antropología, in Mexico City.
Cocijo (occasionally spelt Cociyo) is a lightning deity of the pre-Columbian Zapotec civilization of southern Mexico. He has attributes characteristic of similar Mesoamerican deities associated with rain, thunder and lightning, such as Tlaloc of central Mexico, and Chaac (or Chaak) of the Maya civilization. In the Zapotec language, the word cocijo means "lightning", as well as referring to the deity.
Cocijo was the most important deity among the pre-Columbian Zapotecs because of his association with rainfall. He is commonly represented on ceramics from the Zapotec area, from the Middle Preclassic right through to the Terminal Classic. Cocijo was said to be the great lightning god and creator of the world. In Zapotec myth, he made the sun, moon, stars, seasons, land, mountains, rivers, plants and animals, and day and night by exhaling and creating everything from his breath.
In Zapotec art Cocijo is represented with a zoomorphic face with a wide, blunt snout and a long forked serpentine tongue. Cocijo often bears the Zapotec glyph C in his headdress. A similar glyph is used in Mixtec codices as the day sign Water and it is likely that its meaning in Zapotec is identical, therefore being the appropriate glyph for the rain and storm god.
Representations of Cocijo combine elements earth-jaguar and sky-serpent, which are associated with fertility. His eyebrows depict the heavens, his lower lids represent clouds, and his forked serpent's tongue represents a bolt of lightning. 
Denominations in numerals are in lower right and top left corners. Above in words.
Comments:
Banknote Serie J.
Designer: J. Peral.
Engraver: M. Sasian.
Some features of the banknote’s surface are in raised print (intaglio and/or embossing), which is perceptible by touch, specially the “Banco de México” text, the bust-head figure, the denomination number, the mark for the blind and visually impaired people, and the denomination in letters. Cotton-paper banknotes have intaglio in the color-shifting element and polymer notes have embossing in the clear window.
In the 20-peso banknote, the intaglio can be felt on the scale of justice.
In this banknote, the left of the dove's body and the geometric pattern that is located next to the clear window change color. As for the geometric pattern, the color-shifting effect can be seen both on the front and back of the banknote.
The front and back microprinting texts which are very small texts, which usually require of a magnifying glass to be read.
These texts appear repeatedly on the front and back of the 20-peso banknote with the legend "20PESOS".
The thread crosses the banknote vertically and when holding it against the light, the banknote's denomination can be seen on it. The thread is manufactured directly onto the polymer substrate.
The front and back of all banknotes have figures formed by lines of colors which give the main color to the banknote. These figures are difficult to imitate with printers or photocopy machines as they have dotted-base figures instead of line-based figures. A magnifying glass is recommended to better observe these figures.
Perfect register consists of impressions made on both sides of the banknote which, when seen against the light, complement each other exactly and form an image. In the F type banknotes, these impressions correspond to the map of Mexico and the compass rose.
he 20- and 50-peso banknotes have a clear window in which the denomination can be seen on top of the lines.
On the back of the banknotes there are designs printed with fluorescent ink, which glow when placed against ultraviolet light (also known as “black light”).
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