Owner Comments:
Lyman Allen #10.06 (KM #166) - Mintage: 420,000
Surviving: not more than 65,000, but probably closer to 25,000
This coin is one of the most difficult coins in the entire US Philippines series to obtain in uncirculated condition. The Centavo, 10 Centavos, and 20 Centavos coins were popular with the people and tended to circulate well, but that's far from the only reason these coins are rare.
The entire mintage of 1905-S 20 Centavos was struck from silver bullion obtained by melting old Spanish-Filipino coinage which had been returned to the treasury. These coins were minted early in 1905, as follows:
January...300,000
March......120,000
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Total........ 420,000
The Bureau of Insular Affairs report for 1906 also reports that 8,722 20 Centavos coins were shipped to Manila from the San Francisco mint on January 5, 1906. It is possible that these coins were dated 1905 since this shipment also included 135,635 One Peso coins that were definitely dated 1905. It is also quite possible, and maybe even likely, that these coins were struck in, and dated 1906. January 5, 1906 was a Friday, so these coins could have been struck during the first 5 days of the new year. The U.S. Mint operates on a fiscal year which runs from July 1st through June 30th of the reporting calendar year. According to the U.S. Mint annual report for fiscal year 1906, the Philadelphia mint had created twelve 20 centavos dies between July 1, 1905 and June 30, 1906 and issued them to the San Francisco mint. It is very unlikely that these dies were dated 1905 since all of the 1905-S 20 Centavos coins were struck in fiscal year 1905 so there would have been no demand for additional 1905 dated dies in fiscal 1906. These 8,722 20 centavos coins are not reported having been struck by the U.S. mint in either 1905 or 1906, so we may never know what date was on them. The only thing we can be certain of is that they were returned to the San Francisco mint for recoining into the reduced size and weight silver coinage which began in 1907.
In November of 1905, the price of silver rose above the point at which the silver bullion value of the coin exceeded it's face value. The price of silver peaked in November 1906 when the bullion value of this coin exceeded 22 Centavos. Beginning in 1907, the size and weight of the 20 Centavos coin was reduced. The early 20 Centavos coins were removed from circulation by the banks as quickly as they came in and returned to the treasury for recoining. Over the next 34 years, 84.34% of all of the 20 Centavos coins struck for circulation from 1903 through 1906 were recoined by the government. The early silver coins were also melted or exported by the general population, but the number lost in this way is probably very small compared to the recoinage. Based on the government figures alone, at most 15.66% of the early 20 Centavos could have survived. In the case of the 1905-S, this translates to a survival of between 65,000 and 66,000. However, based on the Philippine Treasury circulation data, the extant population of the 1905-S is probably much lower.
The price of silver had been on an upward trend from the very first day coins were struck in March of 1903. There had been rises and falls, but it was clear in early 1905 that the par value of the silver Philippine coinage would soon be reached, so the Treasury began withdrawing them from circulation. By June 30, 1905 there were 1,052,101 20 centavos coins held in the treasury. It is very likely that this included the majority of the 1905-S 20 centavos coins. The last coins received by the treasury were probably among the first to be shipped back to the San Francisco mint for recoinage, so applying the general survival rate to this issue would be very optimistic. The 1903-S 20 centavos should be much more rare than the 1905-S based on mintage figures alone, but the number certified by the grading services for each date are very close. One can conclude then that the number of each date surviving to this day should also be very close. The surviving population for the 1905-S is more likely to be less than 6% of the original mintage, or roughly 25,000 coins.
At the time this coin was acquired, PCGS listed a total of six with none above MS64 and NGC listed only two, one at MS60 and the other at MS61. The total uncirulated population for both grading services was 8. As of this revision, the PCGS uncirculated population has risen to 10 and NGC has added one more at MS64, pushing the combined uncirculated into double digits at 13. The 1903S has a much lower mintage at 150,000, but still has a higher combined uncirculated population with 18 pieces at MS60 or above. This is not too surprising in that people tend to save more coins from the first year of issue of a new series than they do from the following years. Typically, the the third, fourth, and fifth years tend to be the most difficult to obtain in uncirculated condition. This is probably THE most difficult coin of the 20 Centavos collection, so I don't feel at all bad about obtaining a nice AU example at a reasonable price.
Varieties
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10.06a - S/S Repunched Mint Mark (RPM) and Repunched "1" in the date. The repunched S is not as dramatic as some other dates, but the repunched "1" is very obvious.
Date acquired: 5/9/2015 (Already graded by PCGS)
Rev 11/4/2018