Spanish Colonial Coinage from the Philippines and One From the U.S. Commonwealth Era

One of the things I really like about old coins, besides their more commonly being made of precious metals and thus having intrinsic value, is that they tell a bit of a story. In this case, one of conquest, cultural influences... and political development.

First we have Queen Isabel II of Spain, though this is a coin from the Philippines while it was a Spanish Colony

Isabela II was succeeded by her son, King Alfonso XII

another 50s de Peso coin

The next coin I have to show from the Philippines is a... I don't want to say post-colonial coin, but Spain is out of the picture anyway:

A twenty centavo Philippines coin issued by the United States Government. I showed a couple of pesos before from around this time, but this is a smaller piece.

History is written by the victors. We called it a "commonwealth"

One side of the 20 centavo piece has Liberty holding the hammer next to the anvil with a volcano in the background just like the pesos in the post I linked above. But the opposite side of 20 centavo piece has a different image. It's the same as the reverse on the 1944 MacArthur coins from a different post.

Anyway, that's all for now. Big day tomorrow. See you all in the funny papers ;-)


@SbsParts