Why does this coin look like it does???

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Looks like corrosion/enviormental damage.Also it has a high mintage of over 20,000,000 with $12 of silver.

 

I suspect that it's due to the effects of salt water. A lot of these coins spent time under water when they were hidden from the Japs when the US abandoned the Philippines at the beginning of WWII.

 

Quite likely, although my first thought was "fire damage".

 

My first thought was die pitting. But @green18 … his view seems to be closer to the truth of the matter…imo…Spark

 

I think @green18 is correct. I will say that I have seen coins that spent decades in old Whitman books that showed terminal toning that looks much like that.

 

There is quite a good chance that this coin was among the hoard that the US Govt. sank in Manila Bay to prevent the Japanese from getting possession in early 1942. Those coins sat there until after the war when much of it was recovered. So, the damage could be salt water corrosion.​

 

Definitely looks like salt water corrosion.

 

Fire, salt water, acid. It really doesn't make a difference. It is ED, environmental damage, which lowers the collector value. It can't be fixed and I'd say only the finder of that coin could say why it looks that way.

 

I agree with corrosion. At first glance it also looked like a casting.

 

My father served in the U.S. Navy during WWII in the South Pacific. He was on Submarine Duty there. He told me that his boat and another one had been ordered to the Philippines to help the government take control of their bold and other precious coins in their treasury. After a great many suggestions, the decision was made to drop the treasury in a deep area of the ocean. The problem was that in 1944-45 and later, the treasury was so deep that it was beyond the grasp of the Philippine or United States. As my memory serves me (probably wrong), my father and the other people that knew where the treasury was, were under orders by Military and governments to not tell anyone where it was. I don't remember all the details, but after my father retired and the treasury was finally recovered, my father got a letter declassifying the actions of the Navy. That was sometime in the 1970's. He finally told me what had happened to the Philippine Treasury.
I wonder if any of the coins that were in the deep water was pitted like the coin above.

 

One of the gentlemen in my local coin club did a presentation on the Manila Bay Coins and he had an example that he said came from that underwater hoard. It was quite dark and had some pitting but not nearly as severe as the OP's coin.

 

You are only the third person that mentioned the Manila Bay Coins. One was my father and another was another sailor that served with him in WWII. Thanks for your mention.

 

Enjoyed the story line, thank you for posting it.

 

I've read the WW II story and it was one of my reasons for buying a couple of these coins.

 

Link to something I posted awhile back.........

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/philippine-peso.350967/#post-3911615

 

This is an excellent report on the Japanese efforts to recover the treasure using captured US Navy divers.

The Great Manila Bay Silver Operation (corregidor.org)

 

Great article!

 

yup, good answer, Ken

 

I suspect corrosion. At first I thought fire damage because of the toning but, then switch to corrosion. It would be nice to know if it was among those that were dumped into the ocean to keep them out of the Jap's hands. If it could be proven that it was one of the coins it would give a coin like the a lot of historic value.