Owner Comments:
800 Silver, 20.0 Grams, ASW .5144 oz, 35 mm.
In 1936 the Manila Mint produced a set of three coins to commemorate the founding of the Commonwealth Of The Philippines on November 15,1935. The set consisted of a Fifty Centavos, and two One Peso Coins. The coins were designed by Ambrosio Morales, a Professor of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines. The two commemorative Pesos were struck in .800 fineness silver. The Fifty Centavos was struck in .750 fineness silver. The three coin set had a face value of 2.5 Pesos, equal to $1.25 in U.S. Dollars, and sold for $3.13.
The obverse design of the Roosevelt-Quezon Peso features portraits of the first Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was the second appearance of a living U.S. President on a coin issued by the United States. The other was on the U.S. Sesquicentennial commemorative Half Dollar issued in 1926 on which living President Calvin Coolidge was portrayed.
The reverse design of the Roosevelt-Quezon Peso depicts the official seal of "The Commonwealth of the Philippines".
Design elements of the Commonwealth Reverse incorporate the rich history of the Philippines. The eagle perched atop the shield, of course, represents the United States. The shield used was an adaptation of a design used for the official seal of The Government of the Philippine Islands which appeared on Philippine paper money starting in 1905 (Allen 2008). The three stars at the top of the shield represent the three main geographical regions of the Philippines: Luzon, Mindanao, and the Visayas. The lettering on the Scroll beneath the shield reads Commonwealth of the Philippines. The oval in the center of the shield depicts a modification of the Coat of Arms of the City of Manila which dates to 1596.
On the 20th of March, 1596 King Philip The II bestowed upon the ensigne y siempre leal City of Manila a Coat of Arms such as is possessed by other cities of the Indies. It shall consist of a shield which shall have in its upper part a golden castle on a red field closed by blue doors and windows and which shall be surmounted by a crown and on the lower half on a blue field, a half lion and half dolphin of silver armed and langued gules (red nails and tongue). The said lion shall hold in his paws a sword with guards and hilt. (Royal Edict of March 20, 1596 as quoted in Perez 1946 and 1975)
If you look at the attached picture, you can clearly see the castle surmounted by a crown and the half lion-half dolphin holding a sword with guards and hilt in his paws.
The mintage of the 1936M Roosevelt-Quezon Peso was 10,000 coins, however, the actual number of existing coins is far less as many of these coins were crated and thrown into Manila Bay, near Corregidor, in 1942 to avoid seizure by the invading forces of Japan.
The NGC population of the Roosevelt-Quezon Peso in MS66 is 29 coins with only 7 specimens graded higher. This NGC MS66 specimen is a fully struck, untoned, fully brilliant SUPERB GEM.
References:
U.S./Philippine Coins, 6th Edition, 2008, by Lyman L. Allen
The Copper Coinage of the Philippines by Dr. Gilbert S. Perez, first published in the Coin Collectors Journal, Sept-October 1946 and reprinted in Philippine Numismatic Monographs Number 19 in 1975.