1906-S One Peso Coin - US-Philippine series

One of the rarest coins in the US-Philippine series is the 1906-S 1 peso. The mintage of this coin was said to be a good 201,000(ref) but before they were released in the Philippines, the value of silver has risen so sharply that most of the coins were shipped back to America to be melted. Many of the remaining coins were also damaged from being thrown into the sea when the Japanese invaded the Philippines. Luckily, an estimated 250 of them still exist.

I spotted this 1906-S peso being sold in eBay this morning for $1325. The seller claims the catalog value for this coin in EF grade is $3200. This coin is seldom auctioned off in eBay so you might want to buy it now!

Due to its rarity, many counterfeits of the 1906-S peso coin exist, some made from authentic 1903-S to 1905-S coins.

The seller gives us some tips on how to tell a genuine 1906-S peso.

1) All genuine 1906-S have the straight serif "1" . But beware of a shaven curved serif 1.
2) Check the number "9". The genuine pieces have a larger and rounder knob.
3) The number "0" which the upper inner loop to the right of the 0 is straight rather than oval.
4) Check the number "6" which the knob should be slightly in a teardrop shape rather than round.

Banknote error: blank reverse

Here is an interesting banknote error we encountered in ebay - the reverse of the 1,000 peso banknote was not completely printed! The image above shows the banknote with error (top) and how a normal banknote should have appeared (bottom).

The reverse of the error banknote is almost blank. Upon close inspection, it appears that all the lighter background colors were applied on the reverse in the litho printing step. What's missing is the dark-blue intaglio print which makes up most of the design.

, but the printer seems to have run out of the dark blue ink. This should give us an idea on how our paper money are printed.

Do you want to own this banknote? Hurry, before the auction ends! Buy it here.

Poll results: Which coins should be phased out?

After the voting period, a total of 27 casted their votes and here's what they have to say.

• 17 (62%) do not want to phase out any coin
• 10 (38%) want to phase out at least one coin wherein
• 10 (37%) want to phase out the 1 centavo coin
• 7 (25%) want to phase out the 5 centavo coin
• 6 (22%) want to phase out the 10 centavo coin
• 1 (3%) want to phase out the 25 centavo coin

Most of the voters do not see the need to phase out any coin. The preference to phase out a coin also decreases with an increase in its face value. Only one voted to phase out the 25 centavo coin, understandably because it is still widely used.

While our voters have chosen to keep all the coins legal tender, it does not prevent these small coins from being forgotten in piggy banks, drawers, and bag pockets.

In case you have a heap of coins cluttering your home or office, the Bangko Sentral has an award-winning program that aims to recirculate those coins and raise funds to provide computers to public schools.

The program's slogan sums it up: Ang Barya Mahalaga, Lalo na Kapag Pinagsama-sama