Depicts the seal of the United Mexican States.

The Seal of the United Mexican States is a modified version of the national coat of arms, with the addition of the full official name of the country Estados Unidos Mexicanos, in a semi-circular accommodation in the upper part of the seal. Current and past Mexican peso coinage have had the seal engraved on the obverse of all denominations.

The coat of arms depicts a Mexican golden eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus devouring a rattlesnake. To the people of Tenochtitlan this would have strong religious connotations, but to the Europeans, it would come to symbolize the triumph of good over evil (with the snake sometimes representative of the serpent in the Garden of Eden).

At the center, the image of the obverse of a gold Republican coin, 8 escudos 1828, “little hand coin” type, Mexico City mintmark Mo, assayer's initials J.M.; at the upper side, parallel to the coin frame, the legend NUMISMATIC HERITAGE OF MEXICO; on the left side, the Mexican mint mark, while on the right field is the $100.

When the Mexican Republic was formed at the beginning of 1823, the characteristics of national coins were established. They would all have a common obverse, the national seal; and the reverse of the gold coins would have a right arm holding in a stick a Phrygian cap, on top of an open code with the inscription LEY (“LAW”); which altogether would be surrounded by the inscription LA LIBERTAD EN LA LEY (“LIBERTY UNDER THE LAW”), the denomination, the place where coins were minted, the minting year, the assayer initials initials, and the fineness (21 karat). These coins were popularly known as “de manita” (“little hand coin”).

The Phrygian cap is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward, associated in antiquity with several peoples in Eastern Europe and Anatolia, including Phrygia, Dacia and the Balkans. In early modern Europe it came to signify freedom and the pursuit of liberty through a confusion with the pileus, the felt cap of manumitted (emancipated) slaves of ancient Rome. Accordingly, the Phrygian cap is sometimes called a liberty cap; in artistic representations it signifies freedom and the pursuit of liberty.