The Mint of the Philippine Islands (1920-1941)

Set Description


The Mint of the Philippine Islands is often referred to by U.S. coin collectors as the Manila Mint, as though it was a branch of The U.S. Mint. It is also often identified as the only branch mint outside of the continental United States. While The Mint of the Philippine Islands was aU.S. mint, it was not a branch of THE U.S. Mint. It was actually a branch of the U.S. Department of War, and might best be described as the only United States Colonial Mint!

HISTORY OF THE MINT

It is virtually impossible to understand the history of the Philippine Mint in Manila without also being aware of the events that led to its creation and influenced the first years of operation. The most important of these are 1) the monetary system designed for the Philippines by Charles A. Conant (a highly regarded economic and banking expert of the day), 2) the impact that World War I had on the Philippine economy, and 3) the economic crisis that gripped the country from 1919 through 1922.

The U.S. Secretary of War Elihu Root sent Conant to the Philippines in July 1901 to prepare a plan for a new currency and banking system. Conant returned to the U.S. and presented his plan for the new monetary system in November 1901. It was adopted in 1902, and the first coinage was produced in March of 1903 by the Philadelphia mint. Without going into great detail, the fundamental characteristics of the new system relevant to the story of the Philippine mint are:

• The legal currency of the Philippine Islands would be the (theoretical) gold peso at the rate in gold coin of one US dollar for two Philippine pesos.
• Two funds were created to facilitate this new monetary system:
• The Gold Standard Fund was established for the purpose of maintaining parity of the silver Philippine peso with the gold standard peso.
• The Silver Certificate Reserve was created to maintain a quantity of silver coin sufficient to back the paper currency (Silver Certificates) in circulation. When it was first created, the reserve contained one silver peso for each silver certificate in circulation. This requirement changed over time.
• A silver peso with an Actual Silver Weight (ASW) of 0.78 troy ounces. It is important to note that the 1903 Philippine Peso contained more silver than the 1903 U.S. Morgan dollar (ASW of 0.7734 troy ounces) and was worth half as much! When silver prices rose dramatically in late 1905, the size and weight of the Philippine peso minted from 1907-1912 was reduced so that it contained an ASW of 0.5144 troy ounces. That was now less than a Morgan dollar, but still worth only half as much.
• Subsidiary silver coinage produced in denominations of 50, 20, and 10 Centavos.

Although the legislation signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on July 1, 1902 provided that coins should be struck in Manila if practicable, it would be another 18 years before that actually happened. The minting of all Philippine coinage in San Francisco had been satisfactory up until 1915-1916. World War I was intensifying, and U.S. Mint resources were strained. The Philadelphia mint was producing more foreign coins than usual for Central and South America to fill the void left by the incapacitated European mints. The San Francisco mint was also having to produce more domestic coinage to satisfy the increased war time demand. In the Philippines, the increased world demand for raw materials such as hemp for rope, coconut oil, and sugar all caused an economic boom which increased the demand for circulating coinage. The final straw was a rise in silver prices beginning in 1916 that eventually caused the bullion value of the reduced size and weight U.S. Philippine silver coinage to exceed its face value, causing hoarding by the public. The coin shortage was so severe that the Philippine National Bank even printed fractional currency notes in denominations of Ten, Twenty, and Fifty Centavos in the fall of 1917. All of these factors finally drove the Philippine government to exercise their right to create a mint on Philippine soil. Act No. 2738 signed into law by Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison on February 16, 1918, begins as follows:

An Act establishing the Mint of the Philippine Islands and appropriating funds for said purpose. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled and by the authority of the same:
SECTION 1. A Bureau is hereby created in the Department of Finance which shall be known as the Mint of the Philippine Islands.
SEC. 2. The mint of the Philippine Islands shall have a Director and an Assistant Director, who shall be appointed by the Governor-General, by and with the consent of the Senate ...

The Mint of the Philippine Islands was explicitly created by the Philippine Legislature as a Bureau in the Department of Finance of the Philippine Government. From its inception in the Philippine Organic Act of 1902 through its closing in December 1941, it was always intended to be, and ultimately was administered as a part of the Philippine government. Although it was very dependent upon the U.S. Mint for its technology and engraving skills, the administrative relationship was no different than with any other foreign mint. The Philippine mint paid the U.S. Mint for all equipment, services and dies acquired for its operations. That's why U.S. Mint reports never included the coinage produced by the Manila Mint.

The initial funding of Php100,000 for the fabrication of the mint equipment was also approved on February 16, 1918 in Section 8 of Act 2738. According to a memorandum sent to the Director of the U.S. Mint in August 1918, the Governor-General sent the Treasurer of the Philippine Islands, Dr. Albert P. Fitzsimmons to the United States … in the interest of the establishment of a government mint in the Philippine Islands. During this trip, Fitzsimmons was directed to examine the organization, installing of machinery, and the operation of the United States Mints at San Francisco, Denver and Philadelphia. The University Journal (Alumni Edition) of the University of Nebraska reported in January, 1919 that Dr. A.P. Fitzsimmons, treasurer of the Philippine Island visited in Lincoln in November [1918], having come to the United States to obtain machinery for a government mint. This is interesting because he was still Insular Treasurer at the time of this trip, but he already had responsibility for the mint. Fitzsimmons discovered that because World War I was ongoing, the machinery needed could not be obtained commercially. The Philadelphia mint did however have a large portion of the necessary equipment in stock and was willing to manufacture the rest under the supervision of Clifford Hewitt, the Chief Engineer and metallurgist of the mint. As a result of his trip, Fitzsimmons placed an order with the Philadelphia mint for all of the equipment necessary for the establishment of a Mint in the Philippine Islands. Work on the minting equipment probably began in November or December of 1918.

In April 1918, silver prices passed the threshold at which the bullion value of the reduced size and weight silver peso exceeded its face value. One month later, the 10, 20, and 50 centavos also became worth more as bullion than as circulating coinage. The coinage crisis of 1906 had occurred yet again, and Act No. 2776, was approved on May 6, 1918 to deal with the problem. It was entitled An Act to regulate the currency system of the Philippine Islands and to establish a reserve fund for the same, amending therefor certain provisions of’ the Administrative Code and contained several very significant revisions to the administrative code. The creation of the Currency Reserve Fund by merging the Silver Certificate Reserve and the Gold Standard Fund proved later to be one of the most damaging to the Philippine economic system and a major contributor to the financial crisis or 1919-1922. Section 1612 defined the composition, weight, and fineness of all Philippine coinage. The act reiterates the specifications for the then current coinage but also includes the following:

... Provided, That in case the public good requires it, the Governor-General is hereby authorized to order by proclamation, with the consent of the presiding officers of both Houses of the Legislature, the reduction of the weight and fineness of the Philippine coins as follows:

• The peso to contain fifteen grams of silver, eight hundred thousandths fine.
• The fifty-centavo piece to contain seven grams and fifty centigrams of silver, seven hundred and fifty thousandths fine.
• The twenty-centavo piece to contain three grams of silver, seven hundred and fifty thousandths fine.
• The alloy of these silver coins to be copper.
• The ten-centavo piece to contain five grams of an alloy composed of seventy-five per cent of copper and twenty- five per cent of nickel.
• The five-centavo piece to contain three grams of an alloy composed of seventy-five per cent of copper and twenty-five per cent of nickel.
• The one-centavo piece to contain five grams of an alloy composed of ninety-five per cent of copper and five per cent of tin and zinc.

The legislature had created a third set of specifications for the U.S. Philippine coinage, but did not commit absolutely to the type of massive recoining that took place in 1907. They left the final decision to the Governor-General. This third set of specifications was never used, but beginning in 1918, the pesos that had been coined between 1907 and 1912 became the primary feed-stock for the production of all silver coinage through 1941.

An additional Php250,000 was appropriated on December 21, 1918 (Act 2785) to cover salaries and all of the expenses incurred in installing the minting equipment and preparing the mint for operation. In June 1919, Dr. Fitzsimmons, the Secretary of the Bureau of the Treasury was appointed Director of the Mint to oversee construction and initial operation. This was a lateral transfer for Fitzsimmons which was affected primarily to relieve him as Secretary of the Treasury. Lack of oversight at the Treasury under his watch had been identified as a major contributing factor to the severity of the financial crisis that gripped the Philippines from 1919 through 1922. The mint had the same stature as the Bureau of the Treasury and Mint Director Fitzsimmons continued to report directly to Alberto Barreto, the Secretary of Finance.

The new Mint of the Philippine Islands was not housed in a new building. Instead, it occupied the first floor of the old Intendencia Building which it shared with the Philippine Treasury, Senate, and other government offices. Clifford Hewitt incorporated the latest minting technology in the designed and construction of the machinery. The new equipment was assembled and tested at the Philadelphia Mint in June 1919, before it was shipped through the Panama Canal. It arrived in Manila in November 1919, and over the next 7 months, Hewett supervised the installation of the equipment, the preparation of the mint and the training of the Filipino staff for opening in 1920.

The Report of the Director of the U.S. Mint for Fiscal Year 1919 reports that the minting equipment created was as follows:

Complete coining equipment, to be electrically operated, for installation in the mint shortly to be established at Manila, P. I., has been constructed at the Philadelphia Mint. This machinery consists of 2 coining presses, 2 rolling mills, 1 cutting press, 1 topping machine, 1 strip shear, 1 upsetting machine, 2 tumbling barrels, 1 coin reviewing machine, 1 automatic weighing machine, 1 six-foot bullion balance, 4 hand balances, 1 rotary annealing furnace, 6 oil melting furnaces, 5 sets of punches and beds, 5 ingot molds, and all accessories necessary to complete the installation for the coinage of silver, nickel and bronze.

The coining presses were built from patterns acquired and are the first coining presses ever built in any mint in the United States. They, as well as all of the machinery mentioned, have been thoroughly and successfully tested. The manufacture of this machinery demonstrates that the machine shop of the Philadelphia Mint is fully equipped for and capable of taking care of all machinery requirements oi the Mint Service. During the past year the shop has been taxed to its capacity.

Another Php220,000 was appropriated on December 28, 1919 when the Philippine legislature passed Act No. 2875 in order to fund the operations of the mint for 1920. A little over six months later, amid much fanfare, the first official coinage at the new Mint took place in ceremonies on the morning of Thursday, July 15, 1920. Under the direction of Clifford Hewett, Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison coined the first bronze centavo. Speaker Osmeña of the House of Representatives, then struck the first of the medals which were issued to commemorate the opening. Less than three months later on October 11, 1920, a fire consumed much of the upper floors. Fortunately, being on the lower floor, the mint emerged unscathed, and resumed production the very next day. Production through the end of 1920 totaled 6,958,752 U.S. Philippine coins with a face value of Php105,029.00, 14,000 coins for the Culion Leper Colony, and 5,900 Mint Opening Medals (2,200 in silver and 3,700 in Bronze). Philippine numismatist and polymath Dr. Gilbert S. Perez was present at the opening ceremonies and wrote about the event in The Mint of the Philippine Islands published by the American Numismatic Society in 1921 as No. 8 in its Numismatic Notes and Monographs series.

By the time the mint opened, the demand for additional coinage was already declining. World War I had ended and the demand for Philippine raw materials dropped dramatically along with other commodity prices. That, combined with bad monetary policy on the part of the U.S. administration and corruption at the Philippine National Bank had sent the Philippine Islands into a severe economic crisis that would not begin to turn around until 1922. The bullion value of silver in the one peso coin reached a high of Php1.36 in January 1920, but by opening day had declined to Php0.96 and would never again exceed the face value.

As the economic crisis of the period worsened, the Philippine legislature passed appropriations Act No. 2935 on January 15, 1921 which provided Php246,295 for operations in 1921, but also contained a provision allowing transfer of the Mint to the Bureau of the Treasury.

48. In the discretion of the Council of State, the Philippine Mint may be transferred to the Bureau of the Treasury as a dependency thereof. In this case, the positions of Director and Assistant Director of the Mint shall be deemed automatically abolished, and the Council of State may then authorize for the Bureau of the Treasury an additional position of division chief with a salary not to exceed that ordinarily paid to chiefs of divisions of like importance and responsibility.

Dr. Fitzsimmons had performed much better as Director of the Mint than he had as Secretary of the Treasury. He took the mint from a concept and an empty building to a modern, fully functional, nearly self-contained, state of the art coining facility. Along with Clifford Hewitt, he oversaw the acquisition, construction, installation and initial operation of all of the necessary equipment, the opening of the mint, and nearly 11 months of production spanning two coining years. The mint operated for eleven months at full production and one month at half production during 1921 with a total production of 17,436,798 coins in all denominations from one centavos through 50 centavos with a face value of Php2,092,624.32. Gilbert Perez had reported that the mint was capable of producing 85,000 coins per day with an annual capacity of 25,000,000. The level of production in 1921 did not even come close to the capacity reported by Perez and would not be reached again until the birth of the Commonwealth. The 1921 mintage figure were only exceeded in 1936, 1937, and 1938. 1937 proved to be the most prolific year for the mint when it produced 24,449,364 coins, but the face value was only Php1,165,598.52 because nearly 65% were one centavo coins. 1921 really was the most productive year for the Mint of the Philippine Islands.

In March 1921, newly inaugurated U.S. President Warren G. Harding sent a special mission to the Philippines to investigate conditions in the Philippines. The mission was led by Major-General Leonard Wood and former Philippine Governor-General William Cameron Forbes and thus became known as the Wood-Forbes Mission. When the legislature passed Act No. 2935, Fitzsimmons surely knew that his days as Director of the Mint were numbered, but the commencement of the Wood-Forbes investigation most certainly accelerated his decision to resign his position in May of 1921 to return to the United States. His tenure as Director of the Mint had allowed him to exit gracefully from the Philippines with the successful launch of the new mint and to avoid any fallout from his lack of oversight as the Secretary of the Treasury which had led to the near collapse of the Currency Reserve Fund. The Western Medial Review, March 1922, commented on Dr. Fitzsimmons return to the United States:

DR. A.P. FITZSIMMONS TO BE HOME IN MARCH
Roy L. Stewart has received letters from Dr. A.P. Fitzsimmons formerly of Tecumseh who has been eight years in the Philippines, stating that he expects to be in Nebraska again in March[ 1922]. He sailed from Liverpool with his family February 15.
Dr. Fitzsimmons was treasurer of the islands and ex officio director of the mint at Manila until he resigned to return home. He was said to have been one of the most popular officials in the Philippines and according to friends his resignation was not demanded by the incoming administration.
Dr. Fitzsimmons his wife and one daughter have traveled on a sight-seeing tour through the east visiting India and other Asiatic places of interest, stopping for a while in Palestine, Egypt, Italy and France before reaching England. ...

It is interesting, and possibly a bit telling, that the article specifically states that his resignation was not demanded by the incoming administration, and that he took a very circuitous and time consuming route back to the United States at a time when the Wood-Forbes commission was in the midst of their investigation in the Philippines.

On November 1, 1921, the Council of State exercised the provision of Act No. 2935, demoting the Philippine Mint to become a division of the Bureau of the Treasury. The secretary of finance then designated the chief of the cash division, bureau of the treasury, as superintendent of the mint without extra compensation. At the time of the transfer, the mint had 59 employees, but just two months later only 35 remained. By June 28, 1922, the number of employees had been reduced to 11 and by April 13, 1923, only 3 employees remained. These were: a superintendent, who was also cashier and chief of the cash division of the bureau of the treasury; a cashier and assistant superintendent who had charge of the stock of the mint supplies, machinery, and other equipment; and a mechanic whose duties were to clean and keep all the machinery of the mint in proper condition. The mint had been operated at full capacity for the first eleven months of 1921, and at half capacity during the month of December. Other than a small number of Culion Leper Colony coins, only one centavo pieces were struck for general circulation in 1922, and all minting operations probably ceased well before the end of the year.

In June of 1922, Act No.3058 was passed. It abolished the Currency Reserve Fund, reinstated the Gold Standard Fund, and created the Treasury Certificate Fund for backing the paper currency. With silver prices down, it also amended act 2776 by removing the third set of Philippine coin specifications created in 1918. The Philippines was still in an economic crisis however, and the demand for new circulating coinage was small, so the mint remained inactive for all of 1923 and 1924.

With the recovery well underway, minting was resumed on January 2, 1925, and was operated by the general fund of the treasury for the first 6 months before it was then again moved down one more level in the hierarchy of the Department of Finance. From July 1, 1925 through December 31, 1934, the Mint was operated by the Gold Standard Fund under the Bureau of the Treasury. The mint struck only one and five centavo coins for the years of 1925 through 1927. In 1928 the existing supply of silver 20-centavo coins had run low and the mint personnel had to improvise in order to satisfy the demand since there was no time to order dies from the Philadelphia mint. This gave rise to the other mule of the series when a 20 centavo obverse die from a previous year was married with a five centavo reverse die dated 1928 to produce 100,000 20 centavo mules. Silver 10 and 20 centavo coins were minted again in 1929, but then suspended until 1935. In 1935, the Gold Standard Fund was replaced by the Exchange Standard Fund and the mint operations were taken over by the new/renamed fund until it closed permanently in December 1941. With the birth of the Commonwealth in 1935, the mint produced its only commemorative coinage, and coincidentally, its only one peso coins in 1936. The years of 1936 through 1938 were some of the most productive for the mint. With sufficient quantities of Commonwealth coinage produced, the quantities of coins minted from 1939 through 1941 returned to pre-Commonwealth levels.

CLOSURE AND DESTRUCTION
The City of Manila was bombed on December 8, 1941, just hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Intenencia/Aduana building was severely damaged in the bombing, but the mint was on the ground floor and while not destroyed, production at the mint probably never resumed. The mint remained relatively intact, but unused throughout the Japanese occupation from 1942-1945. The building was destroyed in February 1945 during the final battle to retake Manila from the Japanese occupying forces. After the city was retaken, the building was left open for several weeks during which time, the contents were looted by scavengers and souvenir hunters. Coin World magazine reported in January 2012 that an obverse die Wilson/ManilaMint Opening Medal had been discovered in the estate of a U.S. Army warrant officer who served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. According to his typewritten account, the mint in Manila was bombed and left wide open for looting. While others were scavenging silver bars, he only picked up the obverse die. We will never know what other treasures and records were lost.

The building was reconstructed after the war and housed the offices of the National Treasury, followed by the Central Bank of the Philippines, and finally the Commission on Elections. In 1979 the building burned and left as nothing but a hollow stone facade. Plans were made in 1981 to resurrect the building to become the home of the National Archives, but nearly 40 years later, little has been done to rebuild it.

COINAGE
Although the Philippine Mint produced Medals and Coins for the Culion Leper Colony, the primary function of the mint was to produce coinage for general circulation in the Philippine Islands as warranted by demand. The work horses of the Philippine coinage system in the early years had been primarily the one, ten, and twenty centavo coins because these were the coins most similar to what the Filipino people were accustomed to using prior to 1903. It took more than 11 years for the supply of five centavo coins struck in 1903 and 1904 to be assimilated into circulation, but by 1916 the five centavo coin had been accepted by the general population. This acceptance is shown in the table below which summarizes the entire mintage of the Philippine mint by denomination. Nearly 70% of all coins struck in Manila were one centavos, but from a value perspective, the twenty centavos coin was the big winner, contributing nearly 29% of the total value of all coins minted.

MINT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS (1920-1941)
_______________Total Mintage and Equivalent Peso Value by Denomination_______________

Denomination_	_Number of Coins_	_Percent of Total_	_Value of Coins_	_Percent of Total Value
Centavo	142,310,159	69.5%	Php1,423,101.59	16.9%
5 Centavos	32,242,041	15.7%	Php1,612,102.05	19.2%
10 Centavos	15,413,038	7.5%	Php1,541,303.80	18.4%
20 Centavos	12,123,046	5.9%	Php2,424,609.20	28.9%
50 Centavos	2,756,763	1.35%	Php1,378,381.50	16.4%
Peso	_____20,000	0.01%	Php__ 20,000.00	0.24%
Totals	204,865,047		Php8,399,498.14

MINT MARKS
No mint marks were used on any of the coins produced by the Philippine mint during the first three years of operation with two notable exceptions. My suspicion is that no one at the time felt it was necessary to identify the source mint on the coinage because there was only one mint in the Philippine Islands. It may have stayed that way if not for the efforts of Dr. Perez. Perez became a member of the American Numismatic Association in February 1920, and was a frequent contributor to their publication, The Numismatist from the early 1920's well into the 1950's. The following excerpt from the September 1922 issue of The Numismatist documents a written exchange between Dr. Perez and Assistant Insular Treasurer Salvador Lagdameo:

Dr. Perez didn't realize at the time that he would have to wait two more years to see this promise fulfilled for the regular U.S. Philippine coinage. In 1925, one and five centavo pieces began circulating, each bearing a solid block M under the dot to the left of the date.

The first block style M would be used on all denominations struck for general circulation from 1925 through 1936. The 50 Centavos and Pesos struck in 1936 to commemorate the birth of the Commonwealth of the Philippines introduced the new Commonwealth reverse and with it, a change in the style of mint mark. This second style of mint mark was only used for one more year in 1937 because it did not strike up well in production. Some 1937 one centavo coins even appear to have no mint mark at all. The third and final Manila mint mark style appears like an inverted W and was used from 1938 through 1941. All three Manila mint mark styles are illustrated below.



The one peso and 20 centavos Culion Leper Colony coins struck in 1922 do bear the mark of the Philippine Mint in the form of a stylized PhM stamped into the center of the date side of the coins. This may just be a coincidence, or it could be a result of the exchange between Lagdameo and Perez since it was applied after the coins were struck. A photo of the 1922 counter-stamped "mint mark" appears below on the left. In 1925 and 1927, the Philippine Mint was identified by the letters P below the star to the left of the date, and M below the star to the right of the date. The image below on the right is a composite of the two letters from a 1925 Peso, and is not how they actually look on the coin. The last issue struck in 1930 contains no mint mark.



THE COURSE OF SILVER
Every serious collector knows that fluctuations in the price of silver had a profound impact on U.S. Philippine coinage in 1907, but few realize that the series would again be dealing with this problem in 1917.

In September 1917, the price of silver briefly rose to a level where the face value of all of the currently circulating silver coinage was less that the bullion value. This caused hoarding and possibly exportation and melting as well. The price declined enough for the next six months to a safe level but rose again in April of 1918. From April 1918, through May 1920, the currently circulating silver coinage was worth more as bullion than its face value. The 50, 20, and 10 Centavos were not at as much risk as the Peso because their fineness was .75 vs. .80 for the Peso. Several plans were discussed in 1918 to deal with the problem. Noted economist Edwin Kemmerer advised that a large quantity of Pesos be recoined into 50 Centavos, but that a full recoinage to a reduced size and weight should not take place unless the price of silver rose dramatically. Bureau of Insular Affairs Chief, General Frank McIntyre also opposed a general recoinage, but accepted that a recoinage to a new reduced size and weight may become necessary. McIntyre also recommended that silver Pesos be recoined into subsidiary silver denominations, but only when necessitated by demand. In the end, McIntyre prevailed and Act No. 2776 passed into law in May 1918. Recoining of silver pesos commenced immediately in San Francisco, but only to the extent necessary to satisfy the demand. No speculative recoining was done in 1918 or 1919 by the U.S. Mint.

According to Philippine Treasury reports, ALL of the silver coins minted by the Philippine mint were recoined from previously issued U.S. Philippine coins. Over 97% of the silver used between 1920 and 1941 was obtained by melting reduced size and weight silver pesos struck from 1907 through 1912. The rest came from all denominations of silver coins struck between 1903 and 1906. During this 21 year period, at least 4,000,000 and possibly as many as 5,000,000 (1907-12) pesos were melted and recoined into ten, twenty and fifty centavo pieces. The commemorative pesos and fifty centavos struck in 1936 were recoined from 6,000 (1903-06) pesos and 4,000 (1907-12) pesos. Existing silver coins were not the only ones melted and recoined. Many Five Centavo coins were recoined when the size and weight of the Five Centavos was reduced in 1930. Likewise, many One Centavo coins were melted and recoinied beginning in 1937 when the reverse was changed to the Commonwealth design.

References

• Hill, D. (2013, July-September). Clifford Hewitt: International Man of Mystery? ANS Magazine, 12(3), pp. 36-43.
• Nagano, Y. (2015). State and Finance in the Philippines 1898-1941 (First ed.). Singapore: NUS Press (National University of Singapore).
• Perez, G. S. (1921). The Mint of the Philippine Islands - Numismatic Notes and Monographs No. 8. New York: American Numismatic Society.
• Phillips, F. H. (1976, March). Philippine Coins, The Forgotten U.S. Coinage. (N. N. Harris, Ed.) The Numismatist, 89(3), pp. 525-528.

Set Goals
The set of items presented here are intended to represent the entire range of coins and medals produced by The Mint of the Philippine Islands in Manila. They are presented chronologically in order to show how the spectrum of production changed from year to year. Varieties are included where possible.

The list of coins and medals may however be incomplete. The Report of the Secretary of Finance (Alberto Barretto) for calendar year 1921 contained one very interesting sentence with respect to the production of the mint in 1921. ... 200 bronze medals were struck for the officers and crew of the U.S.S. Helena, in September, under authority of the secretary of finance. I have never seen one of these medals, and I don't know of anyone who has, but it would certainly be interesting to find one. The reporting of the use of the mint to strike coins for the Philippine Health Service is only occasionally mentioned in treasury reports, so it is quite possible that other medals or tokens were also produced by the mint. Any record of these was probably lost to history during World War II.

Rev. 11/19/2017