The 12th Denticle

Here are two coins from the early 20th century, a time when the Philippines was a territory of the United States.

The coin on the top is the first in the series of United States-Philippines (USPI) peso coins. It is 38 mm in diameter and is 90% silver. Minted in Philadelphia, it was placed into circulation on 23 July 1903. 
 

The bottom coin is the last of the series. It was minted at the San Francisco Mint in 1912. The size of coins in this series were reduced to 35 mm in 1907, and their silver content lowered to 80%. This was because of a global silver crisis in 1905 that caused the coin’s silver value to exceed its monetary value.

There had been a steady decline in the minting of these USPI one peso coins since 1909, leading to the eventual cessation of its production in 1912.
 

Welcome to the forum!

In addition to all of the excellent points made by @powermad5000, I will cover what to look for in your one peso coin lot.

Since you did not find any 1906s, the next on the list in order of scarcity would be the 1905-S straight serif. Look at the number “1”  of the date on the reverse, and check if the serif is straight (like the font used in this text). The common 1905s have a curved serif.

Next would be a 1912-S, then a 1911-S, then a 1905-S curved serif, and then a 1910-S.

The larger peso coins (1903-1906) are generally more valuable than the smaller ones (1907-1912) when it comes to the common dates, depending on the condition of course.

Look for proof issues too (worth a lot more than regular ones) as sometimes these made it into circulation perhaps by someone not knowing any better or in need to spending it. Proofs will not have the “S” mint mark, but the 1903 and 1904 peso coins have circulation issues without the mint mark.

Then, look for double or triple struck coins. These occur mostly in the 1908-S and 1909-S issues.

Chop-marked peso coins are also desirable and can command more depending on appearance and condition.

For more information on these one peso coins, such as mintage numbers and pictures, check out my registry set of US-Philippine one peso coins:

https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/211134/
 

Hope this helps. Feel free to post more questions and pics.

On 10/16/2023 at 3:30 AM, Coinbuf said:

I also tried this and did not see any change in the counter, however, perhaps the software "knows" who I am by the IP address, just guessing on that.

@Coinbuf Also viewed your “My old holder collection” custom set (very nice, btw) and it’s view counter has not moved as well—9722.

On 10/16/2023 at 4:43 PM, Redline68 said:

I saw no change in my set. I also suspect it knows the IP address,

 

https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=32322

@Redline68 I viewed the custom set you linked and it is still sitting at 59. It should have registered that I viewed it (looked at a few coins, enlarged them, looked at the gallery, etc.)

On 10/16/2023 at 7:13 PM, Ali E. said:

Hello.

A user viewing (or editing) his own set does not count toward number of views. Thank you.

Thank you for clarifying, Ali. And that makes sense: An owner viewing his or her own set should not be counted—only someone else and every time that someone else views the custom set.

Someone viewed my custom set. It’s now at 23🙂

I was updating my custom set last week and noticed that the view count has not changed at all, even after numerous views (not logged on) using different browsers on different devices (notebook, phone, tablet).

This is my custom set:

https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=32398

As of this writing, my view count is 22.

Custom set owners, would you please view your sets (do not log on) and check if the view count is incrementing? 

Congratulations! 

Neil Shafer, world-renowned currency expert, author, ANA Hall of Fame inductee and recipient of the Chester L. Krause Memorial Distinguished Service Award (formerly the Farran Zerbe Memorial Award), has passed away. 

Neil Shafer is probably best known for his interest in Philippine numismatics, and his books on this subject: United States Territorial Coinage for The Philippine Islands (Whitman Publishing, 1961); A Guide Book of Philippine Paper Money (Whitman Publishing, 1964); and Philippine Emergency and Guerrilla Currency of World War II (Western Publishing, 1974).

Although I did not know Neil Shafer personally, his books have been invaluable for me when I was learning about US-Philippine coins and currency.

He passed away on August 24, 2023. He was 90 years old.

The following is an excerpt of a tribute from the Philippine Collectors Forum by John Riley:

We are greatly saddened to learn of the passing of Neil Shafer, a Giant in the world of Coins and Paper Money research and collecting.  Among many areas, issues of the U.S Philippines 1903-45 was a particular passion.

Neil was unquestionably the pioneer in this research and publishing:  his knowledge and experience was recognized, respected and sought by everyone who attended our meetings over the years.  Although he admitted that early on he had no real, personal connection through military service, etc to the Philippine Islands, he was fascinated by U.S. Federal coin and paper money “connections” to those of the Islands and was the first person in the United States to recognize and appreciate the unique series of coins, tokens and paper money as bona fide regular U.S. issues.  Most importantly for us now, he actually DID something tangible about it while working for Whitman Publishing -  namely, he produced the seminal collector references.

In later years, Neil continued to regularly present topics of interest to the PCF and unfailingly would pull some amazing artifact out of his battered brown briefcase to delight and captivate us!  Neil embraced modern technology, no small feat for members a fraction of his age, and it would be a boon to keeping the numismatic conversation going in the age of COVId-19.  We conducted two “virtual meetings” via the ZOOM application during the Pandemic and Neil expertly provided video interaction on financial instruments made of paper - Manila’s Santo Tomas Internment Camp meal chits, early U.S. Army Camp Exchange “tokens” and other similar items in paper - all quite rare.   Neil even invented a new word - Exographica - for the topic (a nod to Russell Rulau’s now-standard term of exonumia for tokens).   Neil kept us in touch with ongoing publishing and encouraged us all along the way to participate in his latest co-written effort, with co-author Matthias Voight, to be published on Volume II of Philippine Emergency “Guerrilla” paper issues.

But, larger than all else, was that he WELCOMED all at every collecting level and he truly ENCOURAGED everyone he encountered in this wonderful community of ours.   That simple kindness and skill in taking time to listen and graciously sharing what he had learned over the years is the shining model of what it means to be a MENTOR.   We take away now this vital lesson to do our best in living up to Neil’s example.

                            🕊️

Rest in peace, Neil. My condolences to the Shafer family.

On 6/2/2023 at 4:30 PM, RWB said:

Below is a typical 2-page letter assembled as a composite for illustration purposes. The fold lines are clearly visible. Edges were automatically filled to diminish curvature. There is a slight mismatch between lines of text and page edges. This can be from the typed original not being square with the paper, or from page distortion from incomplete unfolding. (NARA rules are very strict about handling documents.)

The letter is about a request for 10,000 Philippine proof sets intended for sale at the St. Louis Expo.

Thank you for providing this. It's interesting (for me at least) to read that the cost estimate was for 10K proof sets but what was actually minted were regular uncirculated coins. Hmm...Was there a misunderstanding? A change of plans? I would be interesting to see more information on this. Also, There was an enclosure to this letter from Charles Barber about striking. Please post if available.

On 6/1/2023 at 6:35 PM, RWB said:

PS: There's a lot of detailed info on the 1904 Philippine coins in NARA RG104 E-229 Boxes 207-224. Available for free access at

https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/527901

Thank you for the information, and for providing the document scans. I would love to read more on this topic, especially anything abailable on the re-coinage (shipments, correspondemce, etc.)

On 6/1/2023 at 6:35 PM, RWB said:

It was also valued at 50-cents, which created a problem when compared to a standard silver dollar. By buying 1-peso Philippine coins, a merchant would get twice the silver for a dollar.

 

Indeed, that 1/2 to 1 ratio was a problem. One could have made a profit this way, and a few probably did, but I don’t think it became a large scale problem in the Philippines until April 1905, when the price of silver began to rise rapidly. Now it was really profitable to sell the coins and melt them. People began hoarding and exporting these silver coins to places like Hong Kong, prompting the government to intervene.

Laws were passed that made it illegal to export Philippine peso coins, but this was just a temporary way of dealing with the problem. The ultimate solution was re-coinage.

I have information about the peso re-coining in a couple of my owner’s comment pages, for those interested in further reading:

1906-S Peso

https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/CoinView.aspx?sc=754996

1907-S Peso

https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/CoinView.aspx?sc=754997

Thank you for your post. Very nice pictures and stories 

Thank you for the report and for sharing your pictures. It's always a pleasure to go through your coin show write-ups, and  as usual, I am looking forward to reading the next one!

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations!

This 1967 coin from the Philippines marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of Bataan to the Japanese during WWII has always been graded as proof-like (PL) but recently, one was graded PLCA.
 

I couldn’t successfully upload the coin’s pic, but you can view it from one of my registry sets:

https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/CoinView.aspx?sc=755076

On 1/7/2023 at 1:09 AM, physics-fan3.14 said:

My third award for Best Presented Set

Honestly, I was really surprised by this one. 

Congratulations! Nice coin pics with interesting information.