Whitman Publishing reports that the special edition Redbook celebrating the Manila Mint centennial is sold out.
-Editor
New Special-Edition Red Book Celebrating the
1920–2020 Centennial of the Manila Mint is Sold Out!
The 74th edition of the coin-collecting hobby's annual Guide Book of United States
Coins (popularly known as the "Red Book") debuted in April 2020. A special limited edition of 212
copies was released with a custom goldfoil-stamped cover and a tip-in sheet celebrating the 100th
anniversary of the opening of the Manila Mint. The limited print run sold out within six weeks. Sales of
the special edition support the educational mission of the Philippine Collectors Forum.
The front cover of the Manila Mint Centennial special edition features the reverse design of the so-
called Wilson Dollar (HK-449/450), which was struck at the Mint of the Philippine Islands when it opened in Manila in 1920.
The Philippine Collectors Forum was established in August 2003 at the American Numismatic
Association's World's Fair of Money in Baltimore, Maryland. The group was founded by Raymond
Czahor and Ken Seymore with the active support of ANA president John Wilson. Seventy-five
collectors attended the first meeting—the annual convention's largest club attendance that year except
for the Boy Scouts of America. The Philippine Collectors Forum is a nonprofit group and an official
member club of the ANA. It holds annual meetings at the World's Fair of Money. The Forum's mission
is to promote education about U.S./Philippine coinage, medals, tokens, paper money, scrip, and other
numismatic items.
The Manila Mint traces its history back to the colonial era of the Philippine Islands. In April 1899, as a
condition of the treaty ending the Spanish-American War, Spain transferred control of the Philippines
to the United States. One of the government's early tasks was to sponsor a new territorial coinage. The
resulting coins, introduced in 1903, were designed by Filipino silversmith, sculptor, engraver, and art
professor Melecio Figueroa. They bear the names of both the Philippines (FILIPINAS, the Spanish
name for the islands) and of the United States of America. The silver coins feature a female
personification of the Philippines before the volcanic Mount Mayon (northeast of the capital city of
Manila). The minor coinage shows a young Filipino man, bare-chested and seated at an anvil with a
hammer.
In the early years most of the coins were produced at the San Francisco Mint and then shipped to the
islands. On February 18, 1918, the Philippine Legislature passed an appropriations bill for construction
of machinery for a new mint in Manila. The Great War was interfering with shipments from the United
States. A local mint was seen as being more expedient and economical. In addition, a local mint would
support the United States' goal of moving the Philippines toward its own governance and infrastructure.
The mint was built in Manila in the Intendencia Building, which housed the offices and hall of the
Senate, and the offices and vaults of the Philippine Treasury. Its machinery was designed and built in
Philadelphia under the supervision of U.S. Mint chief mechanical engineer Clifford Hewitt, who also
oversaw its installation in Manila. The facility was opened, with formalities and machine
demonstrations, on July 15, 1920. The fanfare included the production of an official commemorative
medal in gold, silver, and bronze. The first specimen of these medals was struck by Speaker of the
House of Representatives Sergio Osmeña (later president of the Commonwealth in the final years of
World War II).
The Manila mint produced coins for the Philippines from 1920 until Japanese forces invaded the islands
in 1941, at which time it ceased operation. (The Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints would
strike coins for the Philippines in 1944 and 1945.) Filipino and Filipino-American military service
members, guerrillas, civilians, and leaders were vitally important in the Allied victory in World War II.
The mint's buildings were largely destroyed by bombing during the liberation of the Philippines later in
the war.
The Commonwealth of the Philippines became an independent republic on July 4, 1946. Today the
Philippine coins of 1903 to 1945, including those struck at the mint in Manila, are important
mementoes of a significant chapter in U.S. history and numismatics. They are a testament to the close
ties and special relationship between the United States and the republic and people of the Philippines.
The Philippine Collectors Forum is proud to honor the legacy of the Mint of the Philippine Islands with
the 1920–2020 commemorative limited edition of the Guide Book of United States Coins.
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: PHILIPPINE SPECIAL EDITION REDBOOK
(https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n22a03.html)
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor
at this address: whomren@gmail.com
To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum
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