Owner Comments:
Lyman Allen #8.02 (KM #169) - Mintage: 4,930,000
General
Silver prices rose dramatically near the end of 1905 and remained high through the middle of 1907. During that time period all of the early silver coinage was worth more as bullion than for its face value. Act No. 1564 of the Philippine Commission was passed into law on December 6, 1906 reducing the size and weight of all of the silver coinage. The act states that
"The ten-centavo piece shall contain two grams of silver seven hundred and fifty thousandths fine." Production of the new coinage began early in 1907, and 4,000,000 (from both mints) had been delivered to the Philippines by July 1, 1907. According to Philippine treasury reports, all that had been delivered were released into circulation.
Demand for the new reduced size and weight silver coinage was so great that both the San Francisco and Philadelphia mints were tasked with producing it. San Francisco was capable of meeting the demand in subsequent years, so this is the only year in which the reduced size and weight 10 centavos were also struck by the Philadelphia mint for general circulation.
This Coin
This particular coin was originally purchased in an NGC MS64 holder, but it appeared to be better than the grade on the label. Six years after acquiring the coin, I sent it back to NGC for regrade and reholdering. I was very pleasantly surprised when it returned with a grade of MS65. Sometimes an upgrade is already in your collection!
The coin itself is a very nice, well struck example of this date/mint with a bit of toning on both sides.
Varieties
ALLEN-8.02a -
Repunched mint mark S/S - Two sub-types exist. In the most common version, the original S was punched much lower than the second dominant S. In the second sub-type, the lower serif of the S shows doubling to the right.
Date acquired: 05/12/2013 (already graded by NGC)
Date Regraded: 9/9/2019 (after review by MS at the 2019 ANA World's Fair of Money in Chicago)
References
- Shafer, N. "United States Territorial Coinage for the Philippine Islands." Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing Company, 1961.
- Philippine Commission Report, 1907 Vol I (Fiscal year July 1906 - June 1907)
Rev. 10/28/2019