Tag Sale Find This Weekend ?

FadeToBlack

phillipines with a F?

All Philippines 1944 pieces are very common. Along with the "Victory Series 44" currency notes, they were produced in large quantities to accompany the forces sent to retake the islands from the Japanese. And the status of the Philippines peso as a kind of junior US dollar during the period up to 1946 somehow hasn't made it a target for specialist collectors the way US "homeland" issues are. The rim dings & general state of preservation seem to make this a very average specimen.

I remember seeing those in my old Red Book (1991 vintage), anyone know if they still included them in later Red Book issues? I remember thinking they seemed pretty cool because they were made by the US mint, but not for the US. I always wanted to find one but I don't recall ever having seen one in a coin shop. Nice fine!

As far as the Manila mint, I can tell you that it was originally built by the Spanish, who used it to produce minors in the late 19th century, although the big pesos (equivalent to 5 Peseta pieces) were struck in Spain. This was probably because the machinery was all manually-operated, rather than steam-powered. I have a 10 centavos-de-peso piece of Alfonso, with the boy head, from this mint.

When the US forces arrived, they found that it was in some condition of disrepair, with a substantial amount of machinery still sitting in the crates it had been packed in when sent out from Spain perhaps decades before. There was considerable debate, as part of the overall Philippine currency question, on the question of refurbishing it & setting it going to produce, at the very least, small change ; but in the event, all the coinage for the Islands was executed in the US, generally at San Francisco, for years afterward.

This I learned from reading reports of the US military government, now available on-line. Very informative.

It's still cool even if it's not worth much.