While the United States Mint is known for its illustrious history including its coinage, it is also known for minting coins and medals for countries all over the world. It is in one of those instances that we recognize a coin such as that in the next entry of our series following along with Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest Modern World Coins. With insight from authors Charles Morgan Hubert Walker, we will take a closer look at a coin minted for another country that remains a key date to this day.
#83 - Philippines 1906-S Silver Peso
When it comes to the Philippines peso series of 1903-1912, collecting difficulty gets increasingly challenging when looking for the Mint State issues. The year that happens to be the most difficult is the 1906-S which was struck at the San Francisco Mint in the United States. It bears the ‘S’ mint mark and was the only one issued for circulation in the Philippines. The mintage of the coin is 201,000, but surviving examples are reported to be below 200. That number itself drops even more so for examples in Mint State.
In 2009, Stack’s featured an example in the Golden Horn Collection. The coin featured toning and was one of two certified by PCGS in a MS62 condition. The other was certified in a MS63 condition and had heavy bag marks. Three examples are known to exist in a MS61 from PCGS as well. A current market value price for an Almost Uncirculated example is around $7,500.
Filipino artist Melecio Figueroa (1842-1903) was responsible for the design of the obverse of the 1906-S silver peso. Seeking education in Spain, Figueroa came back to his home country and taught engraving as well as worked for the Spanish colonial mint in Manila as an engraver.