Philippine peso coins are issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for circulation in the Philippines and are currently available in seven denominations. The Philippine peso has been in use since Spanish rule.
History
The Philippine peso is derived from the Spanish dollar or pieces of eight brought over in large quantities by the Manila galleons of the 16th to 19th centuries. From the same Spanish peso or dollar is derived the various pesos of Latin America, the dollars of the US and Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese yuan and the Japanese yen.
Pre-Hispanic era Gold was an important medium of exchange in the various territories of pre-Hispanic Philippines, in the form of stamped gold beads called piloncitos and gold barter rings. The original silver currency unit was the rupee or rupiah (known locally as salapi), brought over by trade with India and Indonesia. The salapi continued under Spanish rule as a teston worth four reales or half a Spanish peso.
Spanish administration The Spanish silver peso worth eight reales was first introduced by the Magellan expedition of 1521 and brought in large quantities by the Manila galleons after the 1565 conquest of the Philippines; see Spanish dollar. The local salapi continued under Spanish rule as a half-peso coin. Additionally, Spanish gold onzas or eight-escudo coins were also introduced with identical weight to the Spanish dollar but valued at 16 silver pesos.
Until the Manila mint was established in 1857 the Philippines had no money of its own. Gold and silver coins brought to it by Spain, China and neighboring countries were in circulation. Denominations consisted of In gold escudos: , 1, 2, 4, 8 escudos; each escudo worth approximately 2 silver pesos or 16 reales. In silver reales: , 1, 2, 4, 8 reales; one peso equals 8 reales. In copper: , 1, 2 cuartos; 20 cuartos in a real and 160 cuartos in a peso.
The Casa de Moneda de Manila (or Manila mint) was founded in 1857 in order to supply smaller Philippine currency after the California gold rush of 1848 made silver more expensive and drained the colony of silver and small gold coins. It produced the following denominations according to Spanish standards, with 100 centimos equal to a peso: In gold: 1, 2, 4 pesos; the 4 pesos weighing 6.766 grams of 0.875 fine gold In silver: 10, 20, 50 centimos; the 50 centimos weighing 12.98 grams of 0.9 fine silver (fineness reduced to 0.835 in 1881)
The dearth of pre-1857 copper coins were addressed by counterfeit two-cuarto coins (worth 1/80th of a peso) made by Igorot copper miners in the Cordilleras. In 1897 Spain brought over 1-peso silver coins as well as 5 and 10 centimos de peseta to be accepted by Filipinos as 1 and 2 centimos de peso.
United States administration The United States also struck coins for use in the Philippines from 1903 to 1945. Denominations included the centavo, one centavo, five centavo, 10 centavo, 20 centavo, 50 centavo, and one peso. The and 1 centavo coins were struck in bronze, the 5 centavo struck in copper (75%) - nickel (25%), the 10, 20, 50 centavo and peso coins were struck in a silver composition. From 1903 to 1906, the silver coins had a silver content of 90%, while those struck after 1906 had a reduced silver content of 75% for 10 through 50 centavos and 80% for the peso. In both cases the silver was alloyed with copper.
The obverse of these coins remained largely unchanged during the years 1903 to 1945. The centavo, one centavo, and five centavo coins depict a Filipino man kneeling against an anvil, with a hammer resting at his side. He is on the left side (foreground), while on the right side (background) there is a simmering volcano, Mt. Mayon, topped with smoke rings. This figure is an allegory for the hard work being done by the native peoples of the Philippines in building their own future.
The obverse of the 10, 20, 50 centavo, and peso coins are similar, but they show the figure of Liberty, a standing female figure (considered by many to be the daughter of the designer 'Blanca') in the act of striking the anvil with a hammer. This was done to show the work being done by Americans in building a better Philippines. Liberty appears on the silver coins, instead of the base metal coins.
The reverse of the coins comes in two varieties. The earliest coins were minted when the islands were a US Territory, and they bear the arms of the US Territories. This is a broad winged eagle, sitting atop a shield divided into two registers. The upper register has 13 stars, and the lower register has 13 vertical stripes. The date appears at the bottom, and "United States of America" appears at the top.
When the islands became a US Commonwealth, the arms of the Commonwealth were adopted. This seal is composed of a much smaller eagle with its wings pointed up, perched over a shield with peaked corners, above a scroll reading "Commonwealth of the Philippines". It is a much busier pattern, and widely considered less attractive.
Coins were minted at the Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver, and (after it was opened in 1920) Manila mints. Most of the coins struck at the Manila mint occurred after 1925.
Proof sets were struck for collectors from 1903 to 1908. It is likely that a large majority of these sets remained unsold at the time they were issued. The recorded mintage for sets in 1905, 1906, and 1908 is a modest 500.
Defenders of Corregidor threw a large number of silver coins into the ocean, rather than allow the Japanese to accumulate this wealth. A great deal of the booty was later recovered, but many of those were badly corroded.
Among the rarest coins in the U.S. Philippines series from the collectors' standpoint are the 1906-S One Peso, the 1916-S Five Centavos, the 1918-S Five Centavo Mule, the 1903-S Twenty Centavos (especially in Mint State) and the 1915-S One Centavo.
Three Commemorative coins were minted to celebrate the Commonwealth in 1936. They show President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon and U.S. High Commissioner Frank Murphy, who also has served as the last Governor General of the Islands. The 50 Centavo commemorative has a reported mintage of 20,000 pieces, was struck in 75% silver, and weighs 10 grams (the same specifications as other 50 centavos). The two varieties of One Peso commemorative had reported mintages of 10,000 pieces. They weigh 20 grams, and are 90% silver.
Culion leper colony coinage
The Culion leper colony was established in May 1906 by the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands in Culion Island, Palawan. It was modeled after the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement in Molokai, Hawaii. It was issued its own Special Culion Currency due to the erroneous belief that leprosy could be transmitted via handling of money. Only inmates of the colony were allowed to use what was commonly known as "leper money." It was prohibited for inmates to use regular Philippine currency, and it was prohibited for non-lepers to use the Culion currency. The first and second issues (1913 and 1920) were struck in aluminum by the Frank & Co. die establishment. All subsequent issues were minted by the newly reopened Manila Mint. The third issue (1922) was also aluminum, but the fourth, fifth, and sixth issues (1925, 1927, and 1930) were in copper-nickel alloy. The sixth issue was the final issue. In total, around 169,000 coins were struck for the Culion leper colony, between 1913 and 1930.
By the 1920s, the segregation laws were relaxed. Non-leper settlers (locally known as sano) started coming into the island, mostly family members of the thousands of inmates who were forcibly relocated to the island during via the segregation program. However, exchange of money between the leper inmates and the non-leper settlers was still prohibited. In 1942, during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in World War II, Culion was cut off from Manila, leading to a shortage of currency. The local Culion authorities issued an emergency currency printed on paper, with centavo denominations in pink paper and peso denominations in blue paper. The Japanese later attacked the island and destroyed its port, radio tower, and electricity generators, cutting off all supplies and contact to the island. This resulted in widespread starvation that resulted in 2,000 deaths. People who fled the island were also killed. It wasn't until 1945 that the US Army Air Corps was able to drop supplies on the island by parachute.
After independence, the segregation law was revised to allow private home isolation and treatment, removing the need for a leper colony. By the 1980s, multi-drug therapies had reduced the status of leprosy to a treatable disease. In 2006, it was declared a leprosy-free area by the World Health Organization. The currency is discontinued but remains popular among coin collectors.
After Philippine independence, 1946-1994
After the granting of independence to the Philippines in 1946, no coins were minted for the Philippine Republic until 1958, other than a small silver commemorative issue in 1947 to honor General Douglas MacArthur. A total of 200,000 50 centavos and 100,000 one peso coins were minted with the general's image on the obverse and the national coat-of-arms on the reverse. Struck at the San Francisco Mint, they carry the "S" mintmark below the date.
In 1958, the 20 centavos was replaced with a 25 centavos and all coins were resized to be the same diameter as their US equivalents, albeit in more base metals, other than the centavo. The same seated man with anvil and volcano or standing liberty with anvil and volcano designs were retained for the obverses while the seal of the Central Bank of the Philippines dominated the reverse. These coins were minted by the Philadelphia Mint from 1958 through 1963, and then by the Royal Mint in England and the Vereinigte Deutsche Metallweke in West Germany in 1965 (dated 1964) and 1966. In view of all subsequent issues using the Tagalog language, this coinage is often referred to as the English Series since it uses the English language.
The next series was introduced in 1967, introducing images of various Philippine national heroes, and the use of the Tagalog (or "Pilipino") language, hence being called the Pilipino Series. The sizes of the coins were reduced. These coins were struck by the various US mints, except for some 50 centavos pieces dated 1972 which were minted in Singapore, and a couple commemorative issues struck by the Sherritt Mint in Canada. In 1972 the one peso denomination was reintroduced.
In commemoration of Fedinand Marcos' declaration of Martial Law (which he titled "Ang Bagong Lipunan," the new society), a new series of coinage was issued in 1975, referred to as the Ang Bagong Lipunan Series. The 50 sentimo was done away with as a denomination and a new 5 peso issue took its place. A variety of mints provided these coins, including the Royal Mint in England and the Vereinigte Deutsche Metallweke in West Germany, Philadelphia and San Francisco mints in the US, the Franklin Mint (a private mint also in the US), the Sherritt Mint in Canada, and finally the Philippine's own mint, once it was opened and able to produce coinage. From this point on, the Philippine Mint (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, "BSP") produced nearly all Philippine coinage.