Puerto Vallarta international visitors

Puerto Vallarta is teeming with international visitors who are unfamiliar with Mexico’s currency. Our website attracts international renters of condos, villas and hotels, so we are glad to offer this information as a service to our website visitors.

Avoiding fake currency

Mexico’s banknotes and coins have a number of security features that you should know. A clueless tourist is the perfect target to unload fake currency. Short of carrying around a counterfeit detector, the best way to avoid a problem is to become familiar with the safety features of Mexico’s currency.

First – Visit Banxico’s Official Website

Banco de Mexico (or Banxico) is the equivalent of the US Federal Reserve Board and US Mint rolled into one. Banxico’s website publishes a list of safety features for each of the banknotes in circulation. Visit
Banxico’s security features website for more information.

Second – Look at Banxico’s Television Advertising

Banxico advertises on television the safety features of its banknotes. Its infomercials stress that validating two or three safety features is enough to safely receive a note.

Third – Know Mexico’s Banknote Safety features

Mexico’s mint incorporates advanced safety features into their banknote design. These include:
Different size paper. In that way, a MS$20-peso bill cannot be washed and turned into a MX$1000-peso bill.
Plastic transparent windows. Many bills have a transparent plastic window with different shape and location.
Denomination strip. Each bill has a small vertical strip embedded into the fabric showing the original denomination. You can see and read this strip if you hold the bill against the light.
Watermark. Each bill has a different figure embossed into the paper as a watermark. The watermark figure should match the printed figure in all bills.
Front-back image match. Certain areas are half printed in the front with the other half in the back. A perfect alignment of both figures is an indication that the bill is genuine.
Colors. As opposed to greenback, all bills in Mexico are printed in different colors to avoid confusion. Once you become familiar with the shade any deviation should raise a warning flag.
Other safety features. Like all major world-currencies, Mexico’s banknotes incorporate microprint, which cannot be reproduced by most 300-dpi and even 1200-dpi printers clearly. Also the hand engraved designs contain irregularities that a modern counterfeiter can only reproduce with painstaking manual work.

Fourth – Bicentennial Banknotes

In 2010 Mexico is celebrating the Bicentennial of its independence from Spain. The country has issued a $200-peso banknote (not pictured here) to commemorate the occasion.

You may want to save a few of these bills as a memento of your visit to the country.

Counterfeit Risk of Mexico Banknotes is Low

Given the number of advanced safety features in Mexico’s currency, the risk of ending up with a counterfeit note is very low.

Most locals are watching Banxico’s TV advertisements daily and will regularly scan all Mexican banknotes for signs of counterfeiting. You should feel free to evaluate the currency that you receive in change as well!

Counterfeit Risk of USA Banknotes Circulatig Overseas is High

On the other hand, receiving a USA banknote abroad carries a much higher risk. The most frequently counterfeited USA bills are the $100-dollar and $50-dollar notes. Smaller denominations tend to be safer.

Most locals are not familiar with the greenback and will readily accept fake currency, even very poor imitations. Unknowingly, the locals will pass around these fake USA dollars to anyone who accepts them.

Carrying fake bills back into the USA may expose you to unwanted attention. I am unaware of the actual risks of unknowingly returning to the USA with a roll of fake USA dollars in my pocket. However, I would not want to be asked to explain the bills’ origins by a US Treasury Secret Service agent at the airport, no matter how nice the agent may seem!

Conclusion

Avoid using US dollars whenever possible. Simply go to any bank’s ATM and withdraw Mexican pesos from your US bank account. Then you can conduct all your business in local currency.