pauldean89445

Hi Willieboyd. To answer your first question, There is a considerable "Chinoy" population here in the Philippines (chinese-philippinos). Around the turn of the century, there was a heavy migration of Chinese into the Philippines. As with everywhere else in the world, their hard-work ethics and tightnit community values propelled them to success. The "Chinoys" are the money in the Philippines, and own most of the largest and most successful businesses here. The chopped Philippine Peso coins, basically, are ALL from here. The Chinese merchants put their chop on MANY silver coins. It was their guarantee that the coin was authentic. Now....the peso began its life on a two- to- one par with the American Silver dollar, but by late 1905, the silver content was of more value than the coin itself. This is the Primary reason for the rarity of the 1906 Peso, because MANY went into the melting pot! Combine the LOW mintage numbers, rarity of collectors of those times (poor country, who could afford to save them!), the numbers that were melted, the Millions that were dumped into the Manila bay (to keep them out of the hands of the invading Japs),etc,etc...and you have a VERY SCARCE/RARE series of coins that are some of the MOST undervalued on the Planet! And...these are AMERICAN COINS! Better get some while you still can, and at rediculously low prices. Check out my collection at Omnicoin. Will be adding LOTS more, as well.

Thanks for the tutoriar on US-Philippine coinage. I have been expounding the beauty, rarity and collectability of the Peso for a number of years now. Often, it has fallen on deaf ears, but i see a definite change in the acceptance and interest in these beautiful coins. I just recently posted on a thread about the "rarity of some common coins" in the main forum, and gave a long and winded dissertation on the Philippine coinage. I am a retired, disabled Vet living here in the Philippines, and have collected these coins for over 30 years, which makes me somewhat of an authority on them. I have around 2000, of which about 200 are Pesos of every variety. This DOES include the elusive 1906, several 1905 "straight serif", and a nice selection of the 1911 and 1912 KEYS. I've just started downloading my collection on the Omnicoin site, and you can see my 1906 there as well as in the main coin forum. BTW, i'd be happy to help anyone who would like to work on a collection, or needs to fill in some holes. I have LOTS of everything .....EXCEPT the 1906, and i promise not to break you! I am confident that these coins will MORE than double over the next several years.