What's it Worth? TWO U.S Philippines 1928-M, MULE 20 Centavos Silver Coin This is a highly collectible U.S. Territorial Philippine Twenty Centavos MULE silver coin dated 1928-M. This type was struck for the Philippines 1907-29. In 1907, the denomination was reduced in weight to 4 grams (KM 170) and a substantial number issued 1907-21 with a final issue from the Manila mint in 1928-29. This issue is called a mule as the reverse die from the five centavos was used instead of the proper twenty centavos reverse. A mule is a coin which carries the design intended for another coin. In the U.S.-Philippine Series, the only other instance of mule coinage is the 1918 5-centavo coin wherein the obverse die containing the date and the shield and eagle design was inadvertently replaced with the obverse die of the 20-centavo coin of the same year. Design The obverse was designed by Melecio Figueroa and features a young Filipina in a flowing dress standing while striking an anvil with a hammer held in her right hand, her left arm is half raised and she holds an olive branch in her hand. In the background is the Mayon volcano with a billowing smoke coming from the crater. On the upper periphery of the coin is the denomination “TWENTY CENTAVOS” and on the lower periphery is the word “FILIPINAS”. The reverse design features an eagle perched atop a shield. On the outer periphery are the words “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and the year of issue. To the left of the year may be a mint mark “M” Manila or “S” San Francisco. Coin with no mint marks (as with this coin) were minted at the Philadelphia Mint.
It is important to note that this was an intentional mule made with an obverse (the date side is the obverse, though it is commonly referred to as the reverse) 1927 five Centavo die. So they are technically 1928/7 overdate mules. The overdate is rarely seen except on well struck higher grade examples. There were no regular twenty centavo dies made for 1927, so the mintage is only 100,000. This is the key to the twenty centavo series behind the 1903-S. I wrote about the 1918-S five centavo mule here:http://www.cointalk.com/t211332/
Wow! Thanks again jhinton. You really know your stuff.... Just to clarify further for a newbie like me to understand: Did I get this right? Intentional mules were minted and went into circulation knowing full well that the coins carry the design intended for another coin? Is this opposed to the usual MULE which is unintentional? What's the worth of my actual coins above considering that they are technically 1928/7 overdate mules noting its present condition?
Every single 1928 20 Centavo is a 1928/7 mule. There was an urgent need for the 20 centavo coins in 1928 but they had not been produced since 1921; therefore there were no dies made. The mint decided to use five centavo dies instead. They just punched an 8 over the 7 of the 1927 die. I do not have any of my books with me or any of my coins so I cannot say for certain where the reverse die came from. It could have been made new or reused from a 1921 or earlier die. To my knowledge I do not think a comprehensive study has ever been attempted on die characteristics of the USPI series except for the 1906-S peso. We may never know the origin of the reverse die used for the 1928 mule. The fact that this coin was an intentional mule verses an unintentional mule does not weigh much in it's value. It is a key coin due to it's low mintage. If there had been a full run of 1928 twenty centavo coins produced and only a small percentage were mules (as in the case of the 1918-S five centavo mule) more of the value would be due to that unique circumstance. Unfortunately, (or fortunately for us collectors) the USPI does not carry much recognition or active collector base in the US. Most dealers do not even know (or care) how scarce or rare some of the coins even are. If you look at the 1906-S peso for instance, there are three types (or die pairings) known. The type three, of which I now own a PCGS EF45 certified example of is undoubtedly the rarest of the three (reported so far). But it does not make a difference as the 1906-S peso is such a scarce coin, not many people have the means to collect them by type, even if they wanted too. If they did have the means, it would more than likely take years to assemble the three coins due to the fact that problem free examples do not come to market very often. As far as value, if I had your coins in one of my cases I would charge $45 for the first one and $35 for the second one. If they were problem free coins, I would at least double that. Don't pay much attention to the published guides on this series, especially on scarce coins of the series.
Thanks a lot jhinton! Very impressive! :hail:Thank you for patiently responding. I'm learning more especially about my US-Philippine coins from you everyday!:thumb:
