My newest acquisition a 1917-S USA-Philippines Twenty Centavos arrived in the mail this afternoon and it is a real beauty.

Finding Gem quality examples of World War l era USA-Philippines Twenty Centavos can be quite a challenge. All of the Twenty Centavos struck at the San Francisco Mint during these "teen years" have low mintages compared to modern coins and the number of certified Gem quality survivors is quite small for most dates. Well struck Gems are even more elusive as most of the Twenty Centavos manufactured during the "teen years" show flattening of the figure's hair in varying degrees.

The 1917-S Twenty Centavos had a mintage of 3,151,000. Even though this is one of the largest mintages from the "teen years" the pool of surviving Gem and Near Gem coins is surprisingly small. The combined NGC/PCGS Certified Population for those grades are only thirteen MS64, four MS65, and one MS66. The Top Pop NGC grade is MS65.

My coin is graded PCGS MS64. It is housed in a old green label PCGS slab which means that it must have been certified prior to 1999. The grading standards must have been different then as I am sure that it would grade higher today. The holder has some distracting scuff marks on the back of the slab immediately over the center of the coin's reverse so I will probably submit it to NGC for crossover. With any luck it should crossover as a MS65 which would make it a NGC Top Pop coin.

I am really excited about the fantastic eye appeal of this coin. It is fully brilliant and blast white with great luster. The obverse is truly exceptional. It is fully struck, with full hair detail, and has no observable marks under five X magnification. The reverse is also well struck with good detail on the Eagle's wing and breast feathers. There are a few very small marks at the base of the shield but nothing that should keep this coin from an MS65 grade.

A 1917-S Twenty Centavos in MS64 earns 833 Registry points. I have added this coin to the following Registry Sets:

JAA USA/Philippines 20 Centavos Collection: http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/SetListing.aspx?PeopleSetID=51345&Ranking=ngc

JAA USA/Philippines Complete Collection: http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/SetListing.aspx?PeopleSetID=68602&Ranking=ngc

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