Cleaning our unoccupied casita is an annual event I do every five years or so, whether it needs it or not. Among stuff that’s been floating around in there since my son left seven years ago is a Mexican 1,000-peso note.

I was reminded of preparing to move to Mexico from Spokane, Washington, in a pickup truck. I had fun giving things away: on Craigslist advertised a pile of post cards from my grandmother, few of which actually said anything, sent to us kids from around the world in the 1960s. Some stamp enthusiast eagerly took them. I has a small box of coins as well. Some I gathered while working a job in West Germany that took me to 14 countries, despite my goal of leaving each with no coins, and many more, also from my grandmother, including some WWII era aluminum ones from Italy. I took those to the closest elementary school late one afternoon, introduced myself to the principal, explained how these might be interesting for geography, history, math and more, and asked if he had a 5th grade teacher who might be interested. He did indeed.

Which got me thinking. The date on this bank note is in March of 1982. What was it worth then?

Well. It turns out that the Mexican peso had been devalued 30% a month before this note was issued, and it only got worse from there.

It was a very not-good year for holders of Mexican local currency units.