Owner Comments:
Lyman Allen #8.10b (KM #169) - Mintage: 1,180,000 (both types)
General
The 1914 issue is interesting in that there is no
normal date designated as 8.10. Every 1914-S Ten Centavo piece has either a short tail on the crossbar of the 4 (8.10a) or a long tail on the crossbar of the 4 (8.10b).
The U.S. Mint only published die life information for nine different years, and the information for the 1914 ten centavos was very enlightening. In most case, the number of obverse and reverse dies are equal or very nearly so. In this case however, the Philadelphia mint supplied 17 obverse dies and 24 reverse dies.This means that, on average, 71,387 were struck with each obverse die and only 48,532 with each reverse die. Monthly mintage information is illusive from May 1913 through November 1914, but we do know that 470,000 were struck in December and based on the annual mint report for fiscal year 1915, December was the only month in the last half of 1914 in which ten centavos were minted. The remaining 710,000 must have been minted in the first half of 1914. It is quite likely that a matched sets of dies were sent to the San Francisco mint early in the year, and that replacement reverse dies were sent later in the year as these dies failed. Based on a comparison of the "4" in the date on the twenty centavos (which has a short bar) with the 4's on the ten centavos, it is my opinion that the short bar dies were the ones originally sent to San Francisco early in the year, and that the long bar version only appeared on the replacement dies used in December. That would imply that the the long bar variety should be a bit more rare than the short bar variety. PCGS treats these varieties explicitly and every 1914 ten centavos is recorded as either Allen-8.04a or 8.04b. There is no generically designated Allen-8.04. The PCGS population statistics support my opinion with four times as many of the short bar variety graded as those with a long bar. This would imply that some of the short bar reverse dies were still available and were used in December 1914.
While studying the dates on this coin, I also noticed that the digits in the dates on both types of the 1914 coins were much more spread out that those in either 1913 or 1915. The digits in those dates were more tightly packed together and centered.
All 1914 ten and twenty centavos coins were struck from silver reclaimed in the Philippines. This being either 1903-1906 U.S. Philippine silver coinage withdrawn from circulation or earlier Mexican/Philippine coinage. This was the limiting factor on the number of coins produced for this year.
An important event must be noted. World War I began on July 8th and while the Philippine Islands would not be directly involved, the war would prove to have a profound impact on all future U.S. Philippine coinage.
This Coin
This coin was purchased as an NGC graded, but unattributed coin. After about one year of ownership, I submitted it to NGC for attribution. This is a well struck coin and was probably minted from relatively fresh dies. Note the sharp detail in the hair, center line garment folds, and toes on the left foot of the female figure on the obverse. On the reverse, the wing tip feathers, eagles breast feathers, stars, and lines in the shield are also very rich in detail. On both sides of the coin, the peripheral lettering is sharp and clear and there is no bleeding of the letters into the denticles. Overall, a very nice coin. If not for a couple of small scratches, this coin would have been an MS64 or MS65. Based on the PCGS statistics, the long bar variety probably only constitutes 20-25% of the total mintage and that rarity should be reflected in pricing.
Varieties:
ALLEN-8.10a -
Short Bar 4 in the date.
ALLEN-8.10b -
Long Bar 4 in the date. (this coin)
Date acquired: 8/27/2015 (Already graded by NGC)
Date attributed: 9/28/2016 (resubmitted to NGC for attribution)
References
- Shafer, N. "United States Territorial Coinage for the Philippine Islands." Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing Company, 1961.
Rev. 11/26/2020