Owner Comments:
Lyman Allen #16.06 (KM #168) - Mintage: 6,056,000
The mintage figures for the early U.S. Philippine Pesos can be very deceiving. Nearly 95% of all early large size, weight, and fineness pesos struck from 1903 through 1906 were melted and recoined into the reduced size, weight and fineness coinage beginning in 1907. The bulk of the recoinage was complete by the end of fiscal year 1912, however the early silver coinage continued to be withdrawn from circulation for recoinage well into the 1930's. By 1941, about 95% of all early pesos had bee recoined. Any large size pesos remaining in the treasury vaults or collected from banks in early 1942 were bagged, boxed and dumped into the bay to keep them from falling into enemy hands. Assuming then that 5% survived, the maximum number of all 1905-S pesos (both types) should be around 270,000. This seems high however, an upon studying the Philippine Treasury data more closely, a different story appears. The treasury began withdrawing peso coins in 1905, even as new coins were being received from the San Francisco mint. Unlike 1903 and 1904 when the majority of pesos were released into circulation, it is most likely that many of the 1905-S pesos never left the treasury vaults. The 1,000 coin bags were simply returned to the San Francisco mint unopened for recoining in 1906. It is very difficult to be exact, but based on the availability of these coins relative to the 1903 and 1904 pesos, the maximum number of surviving 1905-S pesos is probably much closer to 90,000. Any surviving coins must have been released into circulation. This also explains why uncirculated specimens are so rare. These coins are much more rare than one would expect by just looking at the quantity minted.
This particular coin is a very nice, lightly circulated specimen with light peripheral toning on the reverse..
Date acquired: 5/3/2013 (already graded by NGC)
Rev. 11/4/2022