This coin was minted at the San Francisco Mint for use in the Philippines which were a territory of the United States at the time. Because they were minted for use in a U.S. Territory, minted at the U.S. Mint in the United States and the coins say “United States of America” on them, many U.S. collectors are now starting to collect the U.S. Philippines coinage along with their U.S. coin collections. Even the Red Book of U.S. Coins has expanded their listings of USPI coinage, see pages 415-419 of the 2015 edition (411-415 of the 2014 edition). This coin is a 1909-S U.S.-Philippines Twenty Centavos which has been graded with XF Details by PCGS and is encapsulated in a Secure Plus edge-view holder. PCGS declined to assign a numerical grade to this coin because of a past cleaning. There certainly are light hairlines on each side of the coin which is characteristic of a past cleaning and you can see those in the photos provided. That said, the 1909-S Twenty Centavos is low-mintage issue of only 450,000 coins and is a better date in the series. The coin is a light grey color, almost completely free of toning. Unfortunately, the past cleaning has muted the luster of the coin somewhat, but there is still a bit of luster present and the details of the coin are acceptable for the XF grade. Overall, despite the issues, this coin is still a relatively high-grade example of this better-date coin that is rarely available. |