Editing Peso (section)

===1821–1897 Mexican dollar===
{{Main|Mexican peso}}
[[File:Aratame sanbu sadame silver coin 1859 Japan.jpg|thumb|A Mexican dollar used as [[Japanese currency]], marked with ''“Aratame sanbu sadame”'' (改三分定, “Fixed to the value of 3 ''bu''”), 1859.]]
The successful revolt of the Spanish colonies in America had cut off the supply of silver coin by 1820. By 1825 "...the Spanish dollar, the universal coin of three centuries, had lost its supremacy, and...its universal dominion was in process of disintegration into rival 'currency areas', chief among which was destined to be the area dominated by British sterling."<ref>Chalmers, p. 24</ref>

The Spanish dollar continued to dominate the Eastern trade, and the peso of eight reales continued to be minted in the New World. The coin was sometimes called a Republican dollar, but eventually any peso of the old Spanish eight-real standard was generally referred to as a Mexican dollar, Mexico being the most prolific producer. Mexico restored the standard of 1772, producing a coin of 27.073 g, 0.9028 fine, containing 24.441 g fine silver (the mark weight of the Mexico City mint was very slightly heavier than the standard mark of Spain).

In 1869–1870, not long after adopting the [[metric system]], Mexican mints began producing the peso of “Un Peso” denomination, popularly known as “balanza” (scales), with the same weight and fineness, but with a uniform diameter of 37&nbsp;mm (making it slightly thicker than the old peso, which was slightly irregular, with a diameter of 38–40&nbsp;mm). Chinese merchants rejected the new coin, discounting it by 4%–5% in favor of the old eight-real peso. Faced with this threat to her silver exports, Mexico returned to the old eight-real peso by decree of May 29, 1873, but international trade was already shifting from silver to gold, and after 1873 there was a steady decline in the international price of silver.

Until 1873 the Mexican dollar would have been to all intents and purposes equal in value to the silver dollar coins of the United States north of the border, but at that time in history, the Mexican coin would have had a much greater international presence than the [[U.S. dollar]]. [[Panic of 1873|The great silver devaluation of 1873]] caused the Mexican dollar to drop in value against the U.S. dollar, but until the beginning of the 20th century the Mexican dollar would still have been a more widely accepted coin in the Far East than the U.S. dollar. Between the 16th and 19th centuries Mexico produced well over three billion of these coins. Mexico minted the last eight-real peso in 1897, and at the beginning of the twentieth century these Mexican dollar coins were worth only 50 U.S. cents.