A Sitting President on an Official US Mint Commemorative

When some of you saw the title, you probably thought, "I know which coin he's talking about! The 1926 Sesquicentennial with George Washington and Calvin Coolidge." Image borrowed from NGC...



Yes, but there is another! The Manila mint was established in 1920 as a branch of the San Francisco mint. In 1936 it produced a set of three coins to commemorate the founding of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, one of which was a One Peso type featuring the conjoined busts of the first president of the Philippines, Manuel Quezon, and FDR. My example...



The mintage of the Sesquicentennial half was 142,000, and the survival rate high, while the mintage of the peso was only 10,000, and many of them were dumped into Manila Bay in 1942 to avoid seizure by invading Japanese forces. The Sesquicentennial half dollars are easy to find and acquire (although many seem to attract ugly, spotted toning for whatever reasons). The Philippine peso, on the other hand is rare in any grade, and will cost you a few Franklins for a BU specimen.

The peso is 800 fine and at 20 grams, 35mm, close to the size of a silver dollar. I wonder how many collectors of US even know this coin exists? If you've got one, let's see it!

 

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Interesting info. Thanks for the post.

 

I’ll try to dig mine out tomorrow. I put together the set but I wanted them recovered from Manila Bay. I thought I’d was a better story.

 

Interesting, thanks

 

Here are my Manila Bay recovery coins. I have a couple peso too somewhere.

 

That's a great set! You're absolutely right that their story is what makes them more interesting than "nice" examples. They've been through a war - literally.