50 Pesos 1976, Mexico
| in Krause book | Number: 65b |
| Years of issue: | 08.07.1976 |
| Edition: | 98 400 000 |
| Signatures: | Unknown signature |
| Serie: | 1969 - 1974 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 18.07.1973 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 155 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
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The engraving on banknote is made after this photo of Benito Juárez.
Benito Pablo Juárez García (21 March 1806 - 18 July 1872) was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served as the president of Mexico for five terms: 1858-1861 as interim, then 1861-1865, 1865-1867, 1867-1871 and 1871-1872 as constitutional president. He resisted the French occupation of Mexico, overthrew the Second Mexican Empire, restored the Republic, and used liberal measures to modernize the country. President Benito Juarez is from Zapotec people.
On the background is the National Palace (Palacio Nacional) in Plaza de la Constitución, El Zócalo, Mexico City.
The National Palace (Palacio Nacional in Spanish) is the seat of the federal executive in Mexico. It is located on Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la Constitución (El Zócalo). This site has been a palace for the ruling class of Mexico since the Aztec empire, and much of the current palace's building materials are from the original one that belonged to Moctezuma II.
The seat of Mexico's federal government since the age of the Aztecs (at least), the National Palace - or Palacio Nacional - is a working building, and many offices are off limits to visitors. You can, however, pass through the enormous baroque facade dominating the eastern side of the Zócalo and enjoy some of its ample interior.
Though the arcaded courtyards and fountains are fine examples of Spanish colonial architecture, you're here to see artist Diego Rivera's triptych of murals, "Epic of the Mexican People." From the creation of humankind by Quetzalcóatl, the Feathered Serpent god, and subsequent rise of the Aztecs, Rivera plunges you into the horrors of the Spanish Conquest - rape, murder, slavery, and finally, mercy to the defeated survivors. In the final piece, Mexico's resistance to invasions by France, the United States, and corporate robber barons including Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, are depicted.
There are many other works of art incorporated into the Palacio, which independent guides (some of whom speak English) waiting outside the northern door can explain. Independence Day is celebrated here on September 15.
The Palacio Nacional overlooks the Zócalo, more properly called Plaza de la Constitución, which has marked the city center since it was founded, as Tenochtitlán, in 1325. Though the Spanish razed the neighborhood's original Aztec buildings, they used the same stones to rebuild the capital city in Europe's image. According to legend, conquistador Hernán Cortés constructed this building with the Emperor Moctezuma's former palace.
Half a millennium, and several governments, later, this is still the center of all the action. (Viator)
On the left, vertically, is the mysterious step mosaic of the Zapotecs from the palace in Mitla.
Nearly every doorway, room and tomb in Mitla is adorned with stepped mosaics that have been intricately carved and connected together.
Denominations in numerals are in all corners, in words centered.
Revers:
On the background is Zapotec temple in Mitla.
Mitla is the second most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, and the most important of the Zapotec culture. The site is located 44 km. from the city of Oaxaca. in the upper end of the Tlacolula Valley, one of the three that form the Central Valleys Region of the state. The archeological site is within the modern municipality of San Pablo Villa de Mitla. While Monte Albán was most important as the political center, Mitla was the main religious center.
The name Mitla is derived from the Nahuatl name Mictlán, which was the place of the dead or underworld. Its Zapotec name is Lyobaa, which means “place of rest.” The name Mictlán was Hispanicized to Mitla by the Spanish. However, what makes Mitla unique among Mesoamerican sites is the elaborate and intricate mosaic fretwork and geometric designs that cover tombs, panels, friezes and even entire walls. These mosaics are made with small, finely cut and polished stone pieces which have been fitted together without the use of mortar. No other site in Mexico has this. 
On the foreground is Funerary urn (Urna funeraria Zapoteca) from Monte-Alban.
Monte Albán is located at the summit of a 1300 foot high mountain that was leveled over hundreds of years for the construction of a ceremonial and civic center that ultimately covered some 25 square miles. It was occupied between 500 B.C. and A.D. 800 making it one of the longest, continuously occupied communities in Mesoamerica. By A.D. 400, what had been rival villages for centuries during the Preclassic had now become regional administrative centers ruled by lesser ranking families who were incorporated into a system of power sharing through exclusive intermarriages, gifts, and rewards. Monte Albán's kings were thereby able to transform distant regions into rich tribute paying provinces ultimately controlling much of the state of Oaxaca and beyond. Carved jades and fragments of polychrome ceramics bear testimony to long distance trade with the Classic Maya of Chiapas and Guatemala. Over 250 miles to the north in the Valley of México, a Monte Albán barrio was established at the metropolis of Teotihuacán.
The Zapotecs believed that the souls of the royal ancestors passed on to a kind of paradise where they lived very much as they had in life, except that they were to act as intercessors between gods and men. They were called upon to promote agricultural fertility or to cure diseases that were thought to be caused by transgressions against spirit forces in nature. Consequently their descendants were very careful to honor their memory not only by regularly dedicating rituals to their physical remains, but also by sculpting their likenesses on clay urns that were placed among the tomb furniture. The earliest urns date to the PreClassic. They are remarkable in capturing human personality, handsome young men and women, and snarling war chiefs, but through time emphasis was increasingly placed on the symbolism of institutional power displayed in ritual dress. By Monte Albán III, faces became stark, expressionless, and overshadowed by towering headdresses of feathers and monstrous masks. Click on Image for more detail. (John Pohl's Mesoamerica)
Lower, on the right and left sides, are an emblem and a seal of Bank of Mexico.
Denominations in numerals are in all corners. In words in lower left corner.
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