U.S. Philippine Peso Registry Sets Exploding in Value

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Contributing Author: Mitchell Spivack

A Mint State Peso that cataloged for $2,000, sold at auction for more than $45,000. Then just sold again for $63,200.

The most common Mint State Philippine Peso is roughly twice as scarce as the 1916-D Mercury Dime, but the dime is nearly 37 times more expensive. So, finishing a Peso Registry Set is inexpensive, but challenging.

1912-S Peso PCGS MS63 Cert 35489380

A friend collecting this series saw a 1912-S peso in MS65 come up for auction. The catalog value was then $2,000. He was a Registry Set collector and wanted the coin badly, so he bid $40,000 – or 20 times catalog. I’m sure you’d expect 20 times catalog to carry the day, easily, but it didn’t. My friend lost, and the coin sold for over $45,000. Since then, a 1912-S U.S. Philippine Peso in MS65 sold for $63,250.

The 1906-S is the key coin in the series. The mintage was a skinny 201,000. But the survival rate is widely believed to be but a fraction of 1% of that number. That’s because silver rose to the highest level in several centuries that year. The coin was worth more than its face value and was withdrawn before release. The exact number of 1906-S coins that were snuck out of the Treasury in Manila before the coin was withdrawn is widely believed to be about 200 or less. Many of them now corroded or cleaned.

One Filipino collector bought every 1906-S he could find over the course of a decade. A friend saw the hoard of between 50 and 60 specimens and wept. Every single one of them was cleaned; many of them harshly so. Examples in any grade that PCGS would even consider certifying XF40 or better are rare. Even despite its extreme scarcity, an AU55 1906-S Peso was a $1,000 coin about six years ago. Last month, it got a $17,000 bid at a Philippine auction but didn't sell because the consignor set the reserve at $20,000. However, an AU58 1906-S peso, which formerly sold for $1,400, went in a flash in a private treaty sale for $17,500. A 1906-S Peso in MS61, recently soared four-fold to sell for $57,500.

A friend bought a lovely example of another hard-to-find Peso, the 1905-S, for $300 over a decade ago. The coin would later go on to grade MS63+. He recently rejected a $12,500 private treaty offer. About a year later, he sold it by private treaty for slightly over $17,500. So, you can see this series is exploding in value.

This series is also exploding in popularity.

The Registry Set for Mint State U.S. Philippine Pesos is a short set – only 15 coins. Roughly half a dozen years ago, there were just three of these Registry Sets and only one was complete. The other two were fragmentary. But year by year, more and more collectors have been putting these beautiful, challenging sets together.

Today, there are 26 Registry Sets for the series, with 10 complete. The 8-fold growth is a measure of the growing popularity of the series with American, as well as, Philippine numismatists. What’s remarkable is that just a single coin (the 1906-S) in each of these sets is worth $5,000 to $20,000 or more. So, the depth of the Registry Set collector base of Mint State Pesos is growing by leaps and bounds.

Most dates in the series pose a challenge in uncirculated condition.

Look at it this way; if you decide to build a Registry Set of Mercury Dimes, you can go to eBay, Stacks Bowers, and Heritage Auctions and immediately see a selection of the famous key date to the series, the 1916-D (full band). It will be for sale in a variety of conditions. In about a month or two, you'll have your 1916-D in the condition you want and most of the other Mercury Dimes in a nice Registry Set.

That’s not the way it works with the U.S. Philippine Mint State Pesos. The coins are much scarcer than the Mercury Dimes. For example, the most common Peso in Mint State is the 1908-S. Out of 20.9 million minted, 161 have survived to be graded at PCGS in Mint State condition. By contrast, 314 1916-D full-band dimes have been graded UNC by PCGS. That means the most common Mint State Philippine Peso is almost twice as difficult to find in Mint State condition as the rarest Mercury Dime.

1908-S Peso PCGS MS63 Cert 35061290

So, the Mint State Pesos only come to auction on eBay, Stacks, or Heritage occasionally. You have to be more patient – and set to pounce – when a coin you want for your Registry Set comes along. And because the Pesos are so scarce, you can’t just nail down a nice set in a few months. It could take you a few years.

Despite their scarcity and growing popularity, the Mint State Pesos are remarkably inexpensive.

The 1916-D Mercury Dime in MS63 Full Band sells for about $17,500. In MS63 or better condition, there are currently 261 examples graded by PCGS. By contrast, the 1908-S Peso in MS63 has a PCGS Price Guide value of just $475. In MS63 or better condition, there are currently only 75 examples graded by PCGS.

So, the 1908-S Peso in MS63 or better is roughly 3.5 times rarer – but nearly 37 times less expensive – than the 1916-D Mercury Dime (extrapolating from the MS63 grade). Though building a Registry Set for the Mint State U.S. Philippine Pesos is very difficult, it's a fun challenge. It will take you years, no matter how wealthy you are. But the coins are still inexpensive. They’re exploding in value off of, crazy, low-ball pricing. So, this Registry Set provides remarkable relative value.