Philippine Medals (1920)

The Manila Mint reopened under American rule in 1920, in the Intendencia, the building that had housed the Spanish colonial mint, to strike the Philippine coinage that San Francisco had been making. It opened on July 6, 1920, and its first product was a medal for the occasion with the bust of President Woodrow Wilson. Collectors call it the Wilson dollar because it is about the size of a silver dollar. It was struck in silver, copper and gold; the silver medals were sold for a dollar and the copper ones for fifty cents.

Unsold medals were still at the mint when the Japanese invaded. In 1942 they were dumped into the sea off Corregidor with the Commonwealth's silver coins, and many of the pieces recovered later are corroded.

The tree also holds other Philippine medals that PCGS lists by their numbers in Earl D. Honeycutt's catalogue Philippine Medals and Tokens, dated from 1905 to 1938, and one later piece for the cruiser Olympia, Commodore George Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898.

Wilson dollar, obverse. Wilson's bust facing left with PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES around it, and an M for George T. Morgan, who cut the dies, on the shoulder.

Wilson dollar, reverse. A kneeling goddess holds up a pair of scales and guides a boy at a coining press, with TO COMMEMORATE THE OPENING OF THE MINT around and MANILA P.I. and 1920 below.

Metal. The silver medal is Hibler-Kappen HK-449, the copper HK-450 (PCGS calls it bronze) and the gold HK-1031. NGC has certified a brass piece without the M on the shoulder. Cast copies of the copper medal exist; they often show pitting and a loss of fine detail, which differs from the corrosion of pieces salvaged from the sea.

• Silver, HK-449. 2,200 struck.
• Copper, HK-450. 3,700 struck. NGC also lists a matte proof.
• Gold, HK-1031. 5 struck. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which keeps one in its Money Museum, counts three known.
• Uniface reverse. A one-sided impression of the reverse die, with the other side blank, which PCGS lists under the bronze medal's catalogue number.
• Honeycutt medals. Pieces such as the 1909 bronze medal Honeycutt-90 and the 1938 Honeycutt-998-59 in silvered copper are listed under the numbers PCGS prints on its holders, since Honeycutt has renumbered some entries between editions.

The Wilson dollar was struck in silver, copper and gold, about the size of a silver dollar. The Honeycutt medals in this tree are bronze, brass, copper gilt or silvered, gilt silver and silver, as their pages give them.