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Mexican 20 Pesos — ping test & specs

The 20 pesos "Azteca" carries 16.67 g of .900 gold (15 g fine) at 27.5 mm — the mid-size workhorse of the Mexican gold family.

Opens the free tester with this coin preselected — audio never leaves your device.

Official specifications

Weight16.6666 g
Diameter27.5 mm
Composition.900 gold (90%)

Source: Casa de Moneda de México (Banco de México). Coin Pinger checks measured weight and diameter against these values.

Expected resonance range

Good confidence*
ModeExpected ringRecommended variance
c0d24.06–5.11 kHz±11.5%
c0d39.40–11.75 kHz±11.1%
c0d416.39–20.49 kHz±11.1%

A genuine Mexican 20 Pesos rings within these ranges at its c0d2/c0d3/c0d4 vibration modes, fixed by its size and metal. The recommended variance is how far a genuine specimen's ring can sit from each center — built up in quadrature from real manufacturing tolerance and temperature (under 1%), phone-mic capture reproducibility (≈4%), an extra allowance on the fundamental for minting-asymmetry splitting, and a per-metal model-uncertainty term (largest for .9999 gold, whose modulus is least certain). This coin's band is widened further because circulated 90%-silver classics lose mass and edge crispness with wear, spreading their ring. The higher modes also carry a small thick-plate centre correction, since a real coin is not infinitely thin. The good-confidence tag reflects how well-established this metal's constants are: Computed from 22k-gold alloy constants, which are slightly less certain than silver; the band is set accordingly. These are guidance bands, not exact values — see the methodology for the exact formula, or calibrate your own coin in the app for a specimen-exact reference and tighten each peak per coin.

* These are computed guidance ranges. Certain your Mexican 20 Pesos is genuine but it won't match? Send us its ring — we'll dig in and improve the reference.

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How to ping test a Mexican 20 Pesos

  1. Hold — grip the coin by its center (a nodal point) in a coin ping-test holder so the rim rings freely; a fingertip at the center is a last resort.
  2. Tap — strike the edge with a striker near the microphone.
  3. Read the verdict — MATCH or NO MATCH against the peaks above, plus weight and size checks.

Mexican 20 Pesos — frequently asked

How much does a Mexican 20 Pesos weigh?

The official specification is 16.6666 g in .900 gold (90%) (source: Casa de Moneda de México (Banco de México)). Coin Pinger's weight check allows ±0.3 g by default. Circulated specimens lose a little mass to wear, so weigh toward the low side of that window.

What size is a Mexican 20 Pesos?

27.5 mm in diameter, per Casa de Moneda de México (Banco de México). Note the average disc thickness is less than the rim caliper reading — the raised rim and relief concentrate metal at the edge.

What frequency does a genuine Mexican 20 Pesos ring at?

Its fundamental (c0d2) vibration mode is computed to ring in the 4.06–5.11 kHz range, with higher modes near 9.40–11.75 kHz and 16.39–20.49 kHz. These are first-principles physics computations from the coin's published mass, diameter, and metal — not measurements of sample coins.

Why does my genuine Mexican 20 Pesos ring slightly off the listed frequencies?

Wear is the biggest factor for the Mexican 20 Pesos: circulated 90%-silver classics lose mass and edge crispness, which spreads the ring across specimens. On top of that, phone-mic capture moves a genuine peak a few percent tap-to-tap (strike point, how you hold it, the mic itself). That's why this reference band is wider than a modern bullion coin's.

Does ping testing damage a Mexican 20 Pesos?

No — the test needs only a light tap on the edge with a non-marring striker (a wooden pencil or plastic stylus works well), far gentler than normal handling. Hold the coin at its center so the rim can ring freely.

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The physics of the Mexican 20 Pesos ping

Those 3 peaks aren't random. When you strike the coin it flexes as a free disc in fixed patterns called vibration modes — 0 nodal circles with 2, 3 and 4 nodal diameters, written c0d2 / c0d3 / c0d4. Each pattern rings at one frequency.

Where those frequencies land is set by the coin's geometry and metal. For a thin disc, frequency ∝ (thickness ÷ diameter²) × √(stiffness ÷ density). This Mexican 20 Pesos spreads 16.6666 g of .900 gold (90%) across 27.5 mm — an effective disc thickness of about 1.6 mm once the raised rim and relief are averaged out — which puts its fundamental (c0d2) near 4585 Hz.

An ideal thin disc's modes sit at fixed, geometry-only ratios: 1 : 2.33 : 4.11. A real coin isn't infinitely thin — shear in the metal drags the higher modes slightly below the ideal — so this coin's computed reference lands at 1 : 2.31 : 4.02. Spacing near those ratios is the fingerprint of a struck disc, and Coin Pinger rejects taps that don't fit it (keys, glass, a coin lying on a hard surface).

And it's why a fake can't hide: change the metal and √(E/ρ) changes, so every mode moves. Struck in tungsten (the classic gold-fake metal) instead, the ring would land far higher and brighter — its c0d2 would land near ≈9950 Hz instead of 4585 Hz. Density can fool a scale; the ring can't be faked without the right metal.

We publish this as a Good confidence reference. Computed from 22k-gold alloy constants, which are slightly less certain than silver; the band is set accordingly.

Free-plate modes per A. W. Leissa, Vibration of Plates, NASA SP-160 (1969, public domain). See how we measure them →