Owner Comments:
Lyman Allen #19.00 (KM #177) - Mintage 10,000
THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES was founded on November 15th, 1935. To commemorate the first anniversary of this historic event, a set of three coins containing one 50 Centavo piece and 2 different One Peso pieces was minted at the Manila Mint. The issue price for this set was $3.13USD! Despite the historical significance, low mintage of 10,000 sets and the low issue price, many sets remained unsold and languished in the Philippine Treasury. When the Japanese invaded in 1941, the vast majority of these unsold sets were dumped into the Pacific Ocean to keep them from falling into enemy hands. This is the reason that so many of these coins exhibit damage due to prolonged exposure to salt water and are thus described as “sea salvaged.”
These three coins were the first to bear the new Commonwealth reverse designed by Ambrosio Morales which was applied to all production coins beginning in 1937. The obverse of this coin depicts the jugate busts of the first Philippine President Manual L. Quezon in the foreground and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the background. This was only the second time a living U.S. President had appeared on a coin minted by the United States. The initial design of this coin depicted the busts of Roosevelt and Quezon in the same proximity as on the Murphy-Quezon Peso. The original design for this coins was not approved by Quezon because he felt that Roosevelt needed to be more prominently depicted. Morales modified his design to provide more separation between the two men and moved the founding date above the two busts. As a commemorative issue, these coins are typically very well struck.
This particular coin is exceptionally well struck and is a very appealing example of this Manila Mint issue. The detail on the reverse of this coin is the finest I've ever seen, even on a commemorative issue. The word "of" is very prominent in the banner below the shield, the sea lion has nearly all of the surface detail, the three stars at the top of the shield come to a full point at their center, and the wing and breast feathers on the eagle are fully struck. The only weakness is on the crown on the sea lion.
Date acquired: 5/10/2015 (Already graded by ANACS as MS65)
Date crossed to NGC: 8/12/2015
Rev. 1/5/2019