Owner Comments:
This beautiful specimen from the Dr. Greg Pineda Collection is evenly and beautifully blue toned on the obverse, and has more brilliant but lovely shades of golden toning on the reverse. An exquisite offering of a rare coin.
The obverse design by Melicio Figueroa features a young Filipino woman standing to the right in a flowing dress while striking an anvil with a hammer held in her right hand, the left hand is raised and holding an olive branch. In the background is a billowing volcano. The reverse design, also by Melicio Figueroa, depicts an eagle with spread wings perched atop an American shield. At a weight of 2.69 Grams of .900 Silver the Large (17.5 mm) Ten Centavos, minted from 1903 through 1906 had a silver content equal to the U.S. Barber Dime. With an official exchange rate of two Philippine Pesos to one U.S. dollar it was not long before the value of the silver content in the Large Ten Centavos exceeded its face value and many were melted during the great silver melts of the period. Lyman Allen estimates that less than 20% of all 1903-1906 silver coinages exist today in any grade.
Business strikes of the Large Ten Centavos were coined at the Philadelphia Mint in 1903 and 1904 and the San Francisco Mint in 1903 and 1904. Proofs of the Large Ten Centavos were made in very limited quantities at the Philadelphia Mint from 1903 through 1906.
Proof sets were not sold in any sort of protective packaging or cases but were contained in plain paper envelopes and each coin was wrapped individually in thin tissue paper. This method of packaging has contributed to the micro thin hairline scratches seen on most proof coins as well as the heavy toning often seen. GEM proof coins are very scarce.
The 1906 Ten Centavos is a PROOF ONLY ISSUE with a mintage of only 500 coins. The combined NGC/PCGS Population is 17/14 (NGC Population 5/4, PCGS Population 19/15 [7/1/2024])