Owner Comments:
Lyman Allen #4.02 (KM #164) - Mintage: 1,075,000
Only Half Centavo, One Centavo, and Five Centavo coins were struck at the Philadelphia mint in 1904 in quantities intended for general circulation. This is because the comprehensive coinage act of 1873 had restricted the minting of minor coinage solely to the Philadelphia mint. It wouldn't be until April 24, 1906 that Congress would finally pass a bill permitting the production of minor coins at the branch mints. This is generally thought of as the bill which provided for US Cents and Nickels to be minted by branch mints, but it also applied to US/Philippine minor coinage. It took the San Francisco mint until 1908 to gear up for the production of copper cents and One Centavos.
1,355 proof sets were minted in Philadelphia, in 1904 and another 10,000 uncirculated sets were ordered by the well known numismatist Farran Zerbe to be sold at the Philippine Exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. It is unclear whether the minor coins for these sets were taken form the coins minted for general circulation, or whether another 10,000 were struck specifically for these sets. In either case the supply of sets far exceeded demand, and only 3,254 were sold at the exposition. The remaining 6,746 sets were shipped to the Philippines where another 500 were sold by the Treasury. The 6,246 unsold sets were ultimately broken up and released into general circulation.
This coin is very well struck and is virtually mark free on both obverse and reverse. Fresh dies were obviously used to strike this coin, as there is no sign of die erosion between the denticles and the lettering on both sides, the rims are square, the denticles are sharp and uniform, the stars below the eagle are strong and even, and the hair, fingers on the right hand and toes of the right foot are all sharp and very well defined. Based on the strike, I strongly suspect it came from one of these 10,000 sets. There is some streaky toning, but I can't see any other reason that it did not obtain a higher grade.
Varieties: none reported for this date.
References:
- Shafer, N. "United States Territorial Coinage for the Philippine Islands." Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing Company, 1961.
- Coin World, May 12, 2008, Volume 49, Issue 2509, page 92. (http://editions.amospublishing.com/WDCN/default.aspx?d=20080512)
Date acquired: 2/5/2013 (raw coin)
Date graded: 8/7/2013 (self submitted to NGC)
Rev. 11/22/2015