The revolution in Zacatecas
On 29 March 1915 the Zacatecas government sent a circular to the Jefaturas Políticas that Villa had declared all the Carrancista issues (todas las emisiones de billetes Carrancistas) null and void. The next day the government asked for clarificationAMZ, caja 14, exp 9. folio 1. We perhaps have some indication of the public’s reaction that the same day graffiti attacking Villa appeared on wallsAMZ, caja 14, exp 9. folio 1.
On 6 April the government wrote to the various Recaudores de RentasFresnillo, Ojocaliente, Nieves, Mazapil, Nochistlán, Villanueva, Sánchez Román, Ciudad García, Juchipila, Sombrerete, Pinos and C. del Oro telling them to send all the notes that they and their branches had, with the exception of the dos caritas and cartones, within ten days to the Dirección de Rentas to be exchanged. Henceforth, no other type of note would be paid out or accepted in paymentPeriódico Oficial, 10 April 1915. However, on 7 April the government issued its circular núm. 16 and on 8 April sent to the Jefaturas Políticas and Recaudaciones de Rentas a clarification that the 25c, 50c and $1 sábanas were admissible, and that only the deteriorated notes would be exchanged AMZ, caja 14, exp 14, folio 1. The Sub-Recaudador de Rentas in Guadalupe told the Presidente Municipal that the Dirección General had ordered him to accept only the dos caritas and cartones, and so refused to accept the 25c, 50c and $1 sábanas. People were unable pay their taxes, and businesses in turn refused to accept the sábanas. The Jefe Político passed on the report to the government, asking them to order the public offices not to refuse these sábanas, as it was contrary to circular núm. 16 AMZ caja 14, exp 11, folio 61.
On 6 May 1915 the Zacatecas government told the Recaudadores de Rentas to send all their low value sábanas (25c, 50c, and $1) to the Dirección General de Rentas for them to be exchangedAMZ, Jefatura Política, caja 14, exp. 18, folio 1. On 22 May the state government sent a circular to all the Jefaturas Políticas. The general public had been refusing to accept $1, $5, and $10 dos caritas with black rubber seals, on the pretext that they were counterfeit, but the government insisted on their acceptancePeriódico Oficial, 29 May 1915.
In June 1915 the authorities in Zacatecas put up notices threatening severe penalties to those shopkeepers who were refusing to accept revolutionary issuesPrensa, 23 June 1915.
The Secretaría de Hacienda’s telegram of 19 August 1915 tolerating the Ejército Constitucionalista notes was published by Governor Rómulo Figueroa in Zacatecas on 21 August.