Always Smiling Amphibian Featured on Mexican Money Is So Cute it’s Being Hoarded and Never Spent

The front (left) and back (right) of the 2021 Mexico 50 peso note

It’s always interesting to see what images states put on their money.
Mexico recently redesigned its 50 peso note with the image of a perpetually smiling amphibian found only in the country called the axolotl, and it’s become so well loved it’s being hoarded.
Thomas Graeme at the Guardian brought the story to light that a report from the Mexican government detailed how some $150 million worth of 50 peso notes are out of circulation at any given time.
The reason, he wrote on Friday, was simple: they loved the design, which featured an emblazonment of “Gorda,” an axolotl that lived at a Mexico City museum. The note was so well done, it actually won Note of the Year at the International Bank Note Society. Only 12% of surveyed hoarders said they hoarded a copy of every Mexican note; people were far more likely to keep just the axolotl note, a little like the $2.00 bill in the US.
That was in 2021, and some first edition banknotes are now trading at 100-times their roughly $3.00 value.
The axolotl is one of those animals that just defies convention. This salamander never loses its gills, remaining aquatic its whole life unlike other salamanders. It also has the potential to regrow any extremity, a property that’s being investigated for use in future human medicine.
MORE ON THE AXOLOTL: Perpetually-Smiling Endangered Amphibian Now Thrives in Artificial Wetlands in Mexico City
It lived in the lakes around what is today Mexico City, and when the Spaniards drained the lake of Tenochtitlan to build the new capital, it instantly made the salamanders, shaped with a perpetual smile on their face like a dolphin or golden retriever, endangered.
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