Have you ever seen a United States Peso? How about maybe a .20 centavos coin?  That's right!  Well, we made them at the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints, and later we made some at the Denver Mint! . . . Oh, lets not forget that other U.S. Mint. . . The one in Manila, in the U.S. Sovereign Territory of the Philippine Islands, where we produced millions more United States of America centavos and pesos, from 1920 - 1935, and until 1945 as the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands. Original dies for this series were designed by a young Filipino resident from California named Melicio Figueroa and executed by Charles Barber. Together, their designs for Philippine coinage produced some of America's most beautiful coins.

 In 1899, after the Spanish-American war,  the Philippine Islands were acquired by the United States in a treaty with Spain as partial settlement of hostilities. With the institution of a civil administration in 1901, one of the first tasks was to establish a new system of coinage that would be compatible with the old Spanish issues, and legally exchangeable with American money at a rate of two Philippine pesos to one U.S. dollar. The resulting coinage was introduced in 1903 and bears the name of the Philippine (Filipinas) Islands on one side, and the United States of America on the other. These coins were struck at both Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints from 1903 to 1920. The San Francisco coins bear the "S" mintmark. Under the Wilson Administration in 1920, the Manila mint was opened, and produced all subsequent Philippine coinage until the Japanese occupation. Coins dated 1944 and 1945 were made at Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco Mints. This series of coinage represents the only time in the history of the U.S. that a completely separate United States currency was produced for a territorial possession. 

All of the Philippine issues under U.S. Sovereignty are highly collectible and very popular. Recently I was made aware that there has been a significant rise in collector interest in this area. It didn't take long to see that it was not just interest, but also prices, that are really on the rise!  And it's really a no-brainer!  These are beautiful coins, and although some are getting tough to find, they are, for the most part, all still available in practically every grade. There are some absolutely beautiful Proof issues from 1903 through 1908.  They're available now, but getting quite expensive. There are many low mintage and key date coins - just like all other U.S. coin series. There are some really tough issues from 1904 where the total mintage was only around 10,000 coins!  These coins had been struck to be sold at the 1904 World's Fair in Saint Louis. Pieces that didn't sell were shipped to Manila and released into circulation. In 1907, when the price of silver skyrocketed, many of the peso and 50-centavos (Size of a U.S. silver dollar and half dollar) coins were gathered up and returned to the U.S.A. (No telling how many were the rare 1904 Silver issues from Philadelphia) where they were melted and restruck into 1907 and later date coins with reduced fineness and weights. Shortly after the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, an inventory of silver bullion on hand at the Insular Treasury of the Philippines determined that there were more than 15 million pesos in silver (mostly dated 1907-1912) being held in reserve. When it became imminent in January 1942 that the Japanese were going to invade the Philippines, the U.S. officials decided that the only sure way to keep this bullion from falling into enemy hands, was to dump it into the deep waters just south of Corregidore, in Caballo Bay. Of the 15+ million pesos dumped, only about ten million pesos were later recovered. They all suffered major corrosion and salt water erosion. All but a few thousand pieces were subsequently melted down for use in new coins. Additionally, lets not forget that from 1970-1980, millions of Philippine coins were melted for their silver contents just like so many other silver coins all around the world. For these reasons, many early dates in the Philippine series are many times rarer than their mintages would suggest.

In addition to the many low mintage dates, there are several rare varities. In 1918 a five centavos reverse die (copper-nickel, just like our 5c coin) was accidently "muled" with the 20centavos obverse die. (The 5c coins, struck in copper-nickel, were the same size as the silver 20c pieces) Just how many were produced is unknown, but they are rare, and usually only found in low grades. High grade specimens are extremely rare and underpriced. Another "mule" type coin occurred in 1928 when a shortage of circulating twenty centavo coins developed, and no production was scheduled. With no available twenty centavo obverse dies on hand, a five cent obverse die dated 1927 was altered to 1928, and muled with a twenty centavos reverse die. About 100,000 were struck and they are difficult to locate in high grades. Only very early specimens show any evidence of the overdating. There is a really neat one centavo overdate, several S/S, D/D, M/M and inverted "S" varieties. There are several Doubled-die varieties, a rare 1918 Large "S" cent,  and a 1944 D/S 20centavos coin. There are probably many other varities just waiting to be discovered. In addition, there are 1936 Commerative issues celebrating the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands, and the 1920 Wilson "So-Called" Dollars (struck in silver & bronze) struck to Commemorate the opening of the U.S. (Branch) Mint in Manila.

Of course there are a couple of  "almost impossible" coins. The 1903-S 50centavos coin is extremely rare. As far as I know, there are only two pieces known to exist. They probably were struck as "assay" pieces. The two known pieces were probably stolen from the Mint and either given to some VIP, or sold for profit. Over the years, this has been the "usual source" of this kind of rarity. Only one of these coins is certified, and its owner reportedly turned down a 2005 offer in excess of $50,000. There is no official record of  this coin ever being produced. The other is the 1906-S Peso. Mint records show that 201,000 coins were produced, but rarity indicates that probably 200,000 were melted when the size and fineness of all silver coinage was severely reduced in 1907. The 1906-S Peso was considered to be very scarce to rare as early as 1920. As far as I can tell, there are only 400-600 genuine pieces (and hundreds of counterfeits) known. They are available, however, generally at $2500 and up for a FINE or better coin. Authentication should be considered  MANDATORY!  All other dates are available, and if one were to make the effort, a really nice collection of these important coins can be accomplished.

If you feel that this guide was informative or in any way helpful, I would greatly appreciate your taking a few moments to check the ( YES ) box at the bottom of this page. All information sources are available upon request. (mintex03)