Mexican Pesos

In fact it is only relatively recently in historical terms that sovereignty over the territory that is currently Texas was transferred to the United States. Texas had always been regarded as part of Mexican territory. The ancient civilisations of the Mayans and the Aztecs were vanquished by the invading Spanish colonials in the 16th Century, and Spanish rule continued until the battle for Mexican independence began in the early 19th Century. The uncertainty this engendered provoked the Texans to declare their own independence, and they decided to join the newly formed United States in 1836. Further territorial disputes continued over the succeeding years, and the current border between the two giant countries was not finally decided until 1854.

The Spanish influence on the country remains to this day, as Mexico remains the most populous Spanish speaking country in the world, with a population of around 120 million. The proportion of Spanish speakers in the United States also continues to rise, with the result that it is expected to overtake Mexico as having the most speakers of Spanish as a first language by the middle of the Century.

The Mexican peso is derived from the Spanish dollar which was introduced by the colonials after the medieval Spanish conquest. The dollar was widely traded throughout the entire region throughout the colonial period. This included all of Central America, most of South America, and much of the Pacific and South East Asia. Much of the coinage used for trading was in fact Mexican rather than Spanish, simply because logistically, it was easier to mint and transport the actual coinage from Mexico rather than have to ship it all the way from Spain. The Spanish / Mexican dollar was in fact acceptable as legal tender in the United States too until 1857, when then new country finally felt strong enough to survive using purely its own new American dollar. The influence of the dollar / peso continued to live on in South East Asia until very recently. The Singapore Dollar, the Hong Kong Dollar and the Chinese yuan were all modelled on the peso, but only the Singapore dollar remains today. The Hong Kong Dollar was lost as sovereignty was transferred from the United Kingdom to China at the turn of the century, and the yuan was replaced by the renminbi. The current version of the peso in Mexico itself dates from just 1993. A period of hyper-inflation resulted in the need to re-value and replace the previous peso with a more modern version.

Bingo was never particularly popular in Spain, so the game has not been much played historically in Mexico. A small amount found its way over the border, derived from the British colonial influence of the United States, but this was very limited: the impact of the British love for the game was more keenly felt near the original settlements in the North East than in the frontier lands in the far South West.

Nevertheless, doubtless the occasional Mexican peso finds its way to the coffers of some United Kingdom registered online bingo companies, where no doubt the extensive slot ranges are attractive to Mexican expat gamers. At the time of writing, such players could expect to exchange their pesos at the rate of around 25 MXN to the Pound.