I'm curious to know how folks classify Phillipine coinage in their albums during U.S. colonialism. As U.S. or as foreign?
I ahve my own little section for it called Occupation coins However I must say there were some from the philipines that were stunning during the occupation, unfortunately I dont own many, and those that I do are in circulated g-vg condition.
You could go either way on that one. I personally would tend to consider it American issue but others may feel differently. Btw, I would not call the period of US control of the Phillipines an "occupation" It was a territory of the US acquired from Spain by a signed treaty. That said, I'm not sure what the original legal framework was that allowed Spain to assume control of the place originally. The Japanese on the other hand invaded and occupied the Phillipines and they issued "occupation currency" although it was in paper form only; they didn't issue any coins. Of course after independence then it became clearly a separate issue.
What does it take for a coin to be considered American? Is it not enough that it be struck at a US mint and say UNITED STATES OF AMERICA on it?
I put mine in my foreign coins album, I only have three, two of the older ww2 era coins and one of the newer issues.
Tally: 1 - Occupation Category 2 - U.S. Category 1 - Foreign Catagory Thus far I have been keeping them in my U.S. albums. However, that said, I've seen them in a variety of categories at shows and at dealer shops. Today's show got me to thinking because every exhibitor had their Phillipine coins (U.S.) in foreign albums or boxes. mlmummert -> I chose 'occupation' as the operative word because that's how my Filipino friends refer to that time of their history... certainly wasn't my objective to offend anyone.
I'll tell you, I have a 5 peso note printed during the Japanese occupation and it looks like an American $5 bill - amazing .... (Top note)
I have maybe 10 to 15 various Phillipine coins and I keep them all in my world coins binder. They are separate from my US coins only because they all say the Phillipines or Filipinas on them. I know they were made in the US, but they're not our coins and they were never spent here. I still really like the General MacArthur half dollar though.
They are U.S. coins... They say UNITED STATES OF AMERICA on them... They were made largely made in U.S. cities (Philadelphia and San Francisco)... The Philippines were a U.S. Territory at the time... That's enough for me to like them and to collect a few Just think about it for a second... When California secedes from the U.S. at some point in the future and re-establishes the Bear Flag Republic as an independent nation would coins collectors declare that the 2005 CA State Quarters suddenly stop being U.S. coins??? NO WAY!!!!
The one peso is my favorite, unfortunately I cant find them around here, and the ones I do are very low grade.
Thanks folks. I believe I obtained enough for my purposes. :smile I've established subcategories in my albums and in my software that are denoted as "Phillipines -> 'U.S. Commonwealth Issues'" and "Phillipines -> 'Under U.S. Sovereignty'". Beyond that, I'll defer to you guys to duel out the deeper 'brass tacks' specifics amongst yourselves! :whistle: Thanks again!
Interesting thread, and interesting looking coins. That must be Mt. Pinatubo (sic) on it. Im glad the thread kept civil, as it did start to turn into a political and history lesson
Wouldn't that be quite a different case? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the "American Philippines" coins have never been legal tender in the US, I think. It makes sense to collect them even if one focuses on US coinage. But people who collect coins from various countries in, say, boxes should in my opinion have them in the Asia or Philippines box, not the North America or USA box. Similarly, where should a coin "sit" that says Republica Portuguesa? Sure, Portugal. But what if the other side says Angola, India or Macau? Christian
Maybe looking at the question from the perspective of our "sister" hobby (philatelics) will help. If you purchase what is arguably the best album for US stamps (Scott's National), you will end up with pages for all the territorial issues. Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines are among those. BUT only for the period they were under US administration. Confusing the analogy is the fact that these stamps were US stamps overprinted with the territory's name. That would be loosely equivalent to using a punch to put the territory's name on US coins. That obviously didn't occur. Also in the case of the Philippines the US issued stamps specifically designed for the period of the US administration AND designed specifically for them, i.e., not overprinted US stamps. This would be a MUCH closer concept to the Philippine coins that were the topic of this thread. But the bottom line is decide for yourself.
I got them all mainly because I loved the design of them. I just have them in air-tites though. I pretty much view them and foreign though.