The coinage of the Philippine Islands under U.S. Administrtation (1903-1945) represents a substantial investment opportunity for the savvy collector. This is a unique numismatic series, as it represents the only time in the history of United States coinage that a completely separate monetary system was   established exclusively for the sole use of the residents of a terrirorial possession. These are great coins!  In addition to the many scarce and low mintage dates, there are quite a few valuable and elusive minor errors and a handful of very rare and undervalued major varieties.

In the One Centavo series, there are three of these major varieties. All three of these varieties are at least "RARE", and all are significantly underpriced!  The first is the 1917/6-S overdate. This coin only lists for somewhere around $50 in VF, but most serious collectors would easily pay three times that for an undamaged VF example. Next is the 1917/18-S. This coin currently lists for $150 in EF, but I'm sure that any serious Philippines collector would eagerly pay double or even triple that price for the opportunity to own one. So far as I can determine, there are less than just a few hundred pieces of the 1917/6-S, and only 30-50 pieces of the 1917/8-S coins known to exist in all grades. Cherrypicking a nice example of the 1917/6-S would certainly make your day, and an example of the 1917/8-S, would make your year! The third variety is the 1918 Large"S" variety. This die was mistakenly mintmarked with the same "S" that was used on the Fifty Centavos dies. Since this mintmark is about twice the size of the normal "S" mintmark, it is easily identified. Current catalog value for a VF coin is $125, but nice VF specimens routinely sell in excess of $300. There are probably fewer than 500 total pieces known in all grades.

The Five Centavos series also contains one of the Philippine's rarest major varieties. The 1918-S "MULE", which was produced when a San Francisco mint worker accidently paired a 1918-S dated twenty centavos obverse die with a Five Centavos reverse die. This was an easy mistake to make since the 20c SILVER coin was virtually the same size as the 05c cupro-nickel coin. It is unclear just how many pieces were produced, but obviously, only a small number of these coins found their way into circulation. Those that did, are usually found in very worn condition or have damage from heavy circulation. The humid climate and salt air of the Philippines is very tough on cupro-nickel coins. Many, after years of circulation display various degrees of corrosion, pitting, and discoloration due to environmental problems. Although not the rarest of all Philippine issues, this is easily the most valuable of the Philippine varieties, with high grade specimens (VF and better) often commanding values in excess of $1000, and they are still undervalued! A true GEM BU coin would easily bring $15,000.

In the Ten Centavos series, a major variety is the "very boldly doubled" 1945-D Doubled-Die Obverse. There are two dies, but Die #1 is by far the rarest and boldest of the two. These coins are underrated and can be purchased for $100-$200 in high grade (circulated). This is a good investment coin and is much rarer than current values indicate. Rarity would indicate that the total mintage was only somewhere between  6,000-10,000 coins before this die was retired.

The One Peso series is where you will find another rare and undervalued major variety. This coin falls into the "Very Scarce" category. It is the 1905-S Straight Serif "1" in the date variety. Collectors are just (in the last 2 years) beginning to recognize that this coin is a real "sleeper" and is an important variety. According to mint records, the 1905-S peso had a mintage of 5,056,000 coins. Approximately five million pieces were struck from sixty pairs of dies between March and May 1905, with the last 56,000 or so coins being struck in October 1905. These coins were struck from two sets of dies that were prepared with the new Straight Serif "1". This was a die change intended for implementation on the dies for the 1906 peso coinage. Due to rapidly rising world silver prices in early 1906, Filipino speculators began melting silver coins for their silver contents which now exceeded their face value. Of the 27+ million silver pesos coined between 1903-1906, more than twelve million pesos were then gathered up and shipped back to the San Francisco mint in the Fall of 1906 and throughout 1907 where they were melted and recoined into 1907 and later years coins of smaller size and lower silver contents. Many of the late 1905 pesos and practically all of the 1906 pesos probably never left the Mint's storage vaults. In all likelihood, many of these were the first coins melted. I believe that it is highly unlikely that more than 10,000-15,000 pieces of the 1905-S Straight Serif "1" pesos survived the melts. Other than the 1904, and 1906-S, that would make the 1905-S Straight Serif "1" the third scarcest peso. This coin is a real  "sleeper", and prices will continue to rise as the popularity of this coin and all Philippine coinage grows.

When you take into consideration just how many Philippine pesos and minor coins were melted for their silver both by speculators and the U.S. Government, all of the past and present silver melts, all of those millions of pesos dumped into the ocean in 1942, and the resulting years of Japanese occupation, there is no telling how rare many Philippine coins really are today. Therefore, all mintage figures for these coins, are totally useless. U.S. / Philippine coins are probably the least collected of all United States coins. In fact, it has been my personal experience that more than half of all U.S. coin collectors aren't even aware that these coins were ever struck.

If you have found the information in this review to be informative or in any way helpful, I would greatly appreciate your taking a moment to check the  ( YES )  box at the bottom of this page. All informaton sources are available upon request. mintex03