Owner Comments:
SPECIFICATIONS
Mint: San Francisco
Mint Mark: S
Mintage: 58,000,000 (All varieties)
Obverse Designer: Melicio Figueroa
Reverse Designer: Ambrosio Morales
Composition: Brass (Copper - Zinc)
Weight: 5.3000g
Diameter: 24mm
Edge: Plain
The 1944-S One Centavo uses the same obverse and reverse designs as the pre-war One Centavo but has a different wartime composition.
The pre-war One Centavo was a bronze alloy of 95% copper, and 5% zinc and tin. Both copper and tin are important strategic materials during wartime. In order to conserve tin the wartime composition of the One Centavo was changed to a brass alloy of 95% copper and 5% zinc. This is the same alloy the mint used for the production of U.S. wartime pennies dated 1944-1946. The mint produced this alloy by combining ingots of pure copper with salvaged 70% copper shell casings.
During the 1942 through 1944 Japanese occupation of the Philippines, nearly all coins disappeared from circulation. In the occupied areas the Japanese collected all of the coins, melted them down and shipped them back to Japan. The few pre-war coins that escaped the melting pots were hoarded and hid away until after the war. Most daily commerce was conducted with low denomination paper currency (Emergency or Guerilla Currency) printed by Guerrilla military units, local municipalities, or Military and Civilian Currency Boards authorized by General MacArthur or the Commonwealth government-in-exile under President Quezon.
During the Japanese occupation there was a very active resistance movement in the Philippines, and allied inteligence was very much aware, of the economic situation in the islands, and the need to bring new coins and currency with them when they liberated the Philippines.
In preparation for General MacArthurs return to the Philippines, the Treasury Department ordered the San Francisco Mints to strike millions of One Centavo coins. When American forces liberated the Philippines in 1944 - 1945 they brought with them Fifty Eight Million 1944-S One Centavo coins.
NGC Population: 43/8 (1/30/2021)