About Mexican Currency Coins & Notes

Mexico's currency is the Mexican Peso. There are one hundred Mexican cents (centavos) to every Peso.

Coins are minted in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 centavo pieces. Coins are also available in denominations of 1, 5, 10 and 20 pesos.

Banknotes are printed in denominations of 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 pesos. The most commonly used are the 100 and 200 Peso notes. 500 and 1000 Peso banknotes are hard to spend for small purchases, because most smaller businesses will not be able to make chang.

Small Change/Notes in Mexico: getting change always seems to be a perennial problem in Mexico: try to make as much change as possible to use with independent traders by spending larger denomination notes in big stores; you will need the smaller notes for taxis, local buses and other small purchases

About the Banknotes: The 20 & 50 Peso notes are slightly smaller than the 100, 200, 500 and 1000 Peso notes, which are all the same size. Picture examples of the bills currently in circulation are shown below:

20 Peso Note.
The new version is made
of a plastic paper.
20 Peso coin also in circulation.

50 Peso Note.
Very commonly used and seen

100 Peso Note.
Probably the most common note used today.

200 Peso Note.
Very common - cash machines dish these out a lot of the time.

500 Peso Note.
Still quite rare, hard to get change in smaller businesses.

1000 Peso Note.
Very few in circulation, almost impossible to get change.