Off topic from this blog but i had to share this as coin collecting is such a passion of mine.
It took almost a year to finally find one but today in an Antique store in Atlanta, I finally found a USA – Philippine Peso. First thing I noticed is how heave it is. It feels like a barber half dollar. This is a beautiful coin to add to the collection.
According to PCGS, this coin is The Only Dual-Nationality Coins in U.S. History.
Standard U.S. coinage was not useful for the impoverished Philippines because the denominations were too high. Two years later, in 1903, a dual national coinage (U.S. and the Philippines) was released. These coins were the only coins ever minted that were legal tender in the U.S. and another country.
At first, the coins were minted in Philadelphia and San Francisco (“S” mint mark). Then Denver got into the act on lower-denomination U.S. Philippine coins. Finally, in 1920, the U.S. opened a Mint in Manila, the only U.S. mint ever established outside the U.S. Coins from the Manila Mint carry an “M” mint mark. No collection of U.S. mint marks is complete without this “M” mint mark unique to the U.S. Philippine series.
These coins were denominated in pesos and centavos, and were made to standards which were either identical to those of United States coins or microscopically smaller (0.002%). Yet, the silver dollar-sized peso, legally convertible to U.S. gold and silver coinage, was valued at only 50 cents USD. The 50 centavo was valued at 25 cents, and so forth.
