100 Pesos 1981, Mexico
| in Krause book | Number: 74b |
| Years of issue: | 03.09.1981 |
| Edition: | 381 400 000 |
| Signatures: | Unknown signature |
| Serie: | 1981 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 21.01.1981 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 157 x 67 |
| 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 the photo of Venustiano Carranza. Photo from the issue by "Harris&Ewing" - "The World's Work", 1915
José Venustiano Carranza Garza (28 December 1859 - 21 May 1920) was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He ultimately became President of Mexico following the overthrow of the dictatorial Victoriano Huerta regime in the summer of 1914, and during his administration the current constitution of Mexico was drafted. He was assassinated near the end of his term of office at the behest of a cabal of army generals resentful at his insistence that his successor be a civilian. 
Centered is the mural section entitled "La Trinchera" by Jose Clemente Orozco on one of the walls of the San Ildefonso College in the historic center of Mexico City. This mural falls under Freedom of Panorama under Mexican law.
The Trench is described as a "confirmation of what an extraordinary and powerful painter Orozco would turn out to be" and is compared to the mural The Farewell, "where the initial impression is of a bloody action scene of great melodrama." He uses jarring muted tones of a darker palette, which matches the dark theme portrayed.
Orozco promotes a dignified view of death, as the viewer sees three men sacrificing themselves. Two of the men appear to have died, even though no wounds are present on their bodies, and a third is kneeling while covering his face with his left arm. Their faces are hidden, which gives the viewer a sense of anonymity behind the sacrifice of the many victims of the revolution. This poses the question, is the sacrifice of many worth anything?
It makes their anonymous identity more powerful than if they had recognizable identities, because they now represent the sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands of men who fought and died for the same reason. There is also a component of Christian iconography in this mural, as the central man leans spread eagle against a barricade of rocks and beams that resemble a cross, which contributes to the mural's balance but not in a symmetrical way. This is an allusion to the crucifix, with the central soldier playing the role of the martyr, which is further exemplified by his lack weapons. Analysis of this mural and many other murals by Orozco about the Mexican Revolution is summed up by a statement by Antonio Rodríguez, which states "Orozco showed its...tragedy".
José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 - September 7, 1949) was a Mexican painter, who specialized in bold murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others. Orozco was the most complex of the Mexican muralists, fond of the theme of human suffering, but less realistic and more fascinated by machines than Rivera. Mostly influenced by Symbolism, he was also a genre painter and lithographer. Between 1922 and 1948, Orozco painted murals in Mexico City, Orizaba, Claremont, California, New York City, Hanover, New Hampshire, Guadalajara, Jalisco, and Jiquilpan, Michoacán. His drawings and paintings are exhibited by the Carrillo Gil Museum in Mexico City, and the Orozco Workshop-Museum in Guadalajara. Orozco was known for being a politically committed artist. He promoted the political causes of peasants and workers.
Lower is a stylized head of Northern crested caracara with western rattlesnake from Mexican coat of arms.
The northern crested caracara (Caracara cheriway), also called the northern caracara and crested caracara, is a bird of prey in the family Falconidae. It was formerly considered conspecific with the southern caracara (C. plancus) and the extinct Guadalupe caracara (C. lutosa) as the "crested caracara". It has also been known as the Audubon's caracara. As with its relatives, the northern caracara was formerly placed in the genus Polyborus. Unlike the Falco falcons in the same family, the caracaras are not fast-flying aerial hunters, but are rather sluggish and often scavengers.
Denominations in numerals are in all corners, in words lower.
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On the foreground is statue of Chacmool in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico.
Chacmool is the term used to refer to a particular form of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican sculpture depicting a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, supporting itself on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its stomach. These figures possibly symbolised slain warriors carrying offerings to the gods; the bowl upon the chest was used to hold sacrificial offerings, including pulque, tamales, tortillas, tobacco, turkeys, feathers and incense. In an Aztec example the recipient is a cuauhxicalli (a stone bowl to receive sacrificed human hearts). Chacmools were often associated with sacrificial stones or thrones.
Aztec chacmools bore water imagery and were associated with Tlaloc, the rain god. Their symbolism placed them on the frontier between the physical and supernatural realms, as intermediaries with the gods. The chacmool form of sculpture first appeared around the 9th century AD in the Valley of Mexico and the northern Yucatán Peninsula.
Tula is a Mesoamerican archeological site, which was an important regional center which reached its height as the capitol of the Toltec Empire between the fall of Teotihuacan and the rise of Tenochtitlan. It has not been well studied in comparison to these other two sites, and disputes remain as to its political system, area of influence and its relations with contemporary Mesoamerican cities, especially with Chichen Itza. The site is located in the city of Tula de Allende in the Tula Valley, in what is now the southwest of the Mexican state of Hidalgo, northwest of Mexico City. The archeological site consists of a museum, remains of an earlier settlement called Tula Chico as well as the main ceremonial site called Tula Grande. The main attraction is the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl which is topped by four, four metre high basalt columns carved in the shape of Toltec warriors. Tula fell around 1150, but it had significant influence in the following Aztec Empire, with its history written about heavily in myth. The feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl is linked to this city, whose worship was widespread from central Mexico to Central America at the time the Spanish arrived.
On the right side is a stone carved coyote from Tula, Hidalgo.
On the left side is stone carved jaguar from Tula, Hidalgo.
Top left, again, the stylized head of Northern crested caracara with western rattlesnake from Mexican coat of arms.
In lower left corner is an emblem of Bank of Mexico. In top right corner is a seal of Bank of Mexico.
Denominations in numerals are repeated six times, in words centered.
Comments:
UV fibers fluoresce green and blue.
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