US Philippines Coins. Foreign or not?

The Philippines became a US territory in 1902 after the Spanish-American War. As a territory of the United States a new currency was introduced in 1903. 7 denominations were struck from the Peso to the Half Centavo. The Peso and the Half dollar were stuck to the same specifications as the US dollar and half dollar, making them unique “cousins” of the Morgan dollar and Barber half dollar. While some people consider them to be foreign coinage there is a strong argument that they are really US coins. Early coins were made in Philadelphia and San Francisco and later at the only branch mint opened outside of the continental US, Manilla.

Proof Coins are exceedingly scarce, often times with mintages under 500 pieces. This 1906 peso is graded PF66 by PCGS and is gorgeous in hand.

For my money, I think these coins are absolutely US coins. What say you?

 

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Of course the answer is yes. By law, by fact, by Logic, and by hashtag Guam.

 

They say United States of America on them.

 

By law, yes I believe so but as a collector, no they are not US coins. Just my opinion.

 

Depends on how you define "US coin" I guess. If you parse the definition to "legal tender inside the United States" then probably no, they aren't. At least I'm not aware that they could be legally spent somewhere else in the "US" - they're pesos and centavos, not dollars.

 

Quite agree.........so would R. S. Yeoman.

 

They are minted in the US. They have UNITED STATES OF AMERICA on them but if you can’t spend them in the US does that really make them a US coin? What about the 5 other US Territories?

 

U.S. made coins for sure, but not a U.S. denomination, not U.S. circulated. So I agree with @KBBPLL .

They are what they are. They are U.S. Administration coins.

https://coinweek.com/dealers-companies/wings-company/philippine-coinage-u-s-administration/

But call 'em what you will.

I call this one mine. All mine...

 

Numista lists them under the Philippines/U.S. Administration. FWIW.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces6378.html

 

Also found this bit of info about some of the Barber coins...

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces10085.html

 

I guess my Hawaii half dollar technically isn’t an American coin either despite being produced at US Mint facilities as it was issued when Hawaii was an independent monarchy

 

Sorta like America's stepchild.

 

That's a little known tidbit about those years. US coins that were kinda, sorta, Philippines coins! NGC echos what you quoted, in their blurb on 1900-S:

"Like the dimes dated 1898-S and 1899-S, significant numbers of this issue have been recovered in lightly worn condition from The Philippines. Such pieces circulated there for just a few years before a new coinage exclusively for the islands debuted in 1903. In fact, the spike in dime mintage at San Francisco this year probably resulted from the Philippine demand, and 1900-S dimes, quarters and halves are the most abundant issues retrieved from the Far East. The typical survivor displays XF or AU details but is either darkly toned or cleaned with varying degrees of skill. Since so many of these survivors are problem coins, they are not included in the certified Census. Examples in the lower grades of Mint State are more plentiful than they would be, were it not for the repatriated Philippine pieces. Gems, however, are extremely rare for 1900-S."

 

i have always wanted a proof one ,,. why dont they have proof like designations??

 

Interesting opinions.

 

I consider the Philippine and Hawaii issues as falling under US.

An interesting tidbit is that the Philippine coins were convertible at a rate of 2 to 1 to US coins (according to sources like the NGC articles linked below). I’m not sure how easy or difficult it was to convert though.
https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explor...rritories/philippines-under-u.s.-sovereignty/

 

No one seems convinced enough to include them in any U.S. Type Set, as far as I know.

 

For further enlightenment of your fellow humans, can you cite the law that authorized the mint to produce these coins? By your comment, I am assuming you are referring to such a law. If I'm wrong I promise to smack you one.

 

The US Philippine coins are technically US coins they even say so right on them. You can even submit them to the PCGS and ANACS as US coins, not positive about NGC but I believe you can with them as well.

 

It’s not hard to understand the argument for this being a US coin, especially with USA written all over it, but at the same time there are so many coins, especially from colonial times, that were made in another country than they circulated in. Today, a lot of countries have their coinage and banknotes produced abroad. I think it is easier if we define a coins nationality from the country that had it as legal tender, not the country of production.
It really is a great series, though.