Philippine Coins: 1972 Piso Pilipino Series

The coin series following the English Series coins was called the Pilipino Series. This marks the beginning of all Philippine coins being minted in the Tagalog language and features prominent Filipino people in history instead of the seated man and lady liberty featured in earlier coins. The word “sentimo” replaced “centavo” and a number denoting the value was also added to the obverse.

Minting started in 1967, but for this series most coins were minted 1 year after the reflected date. Some of the 1967 coins were minted in 1968, and most, if not all, of the 1972 coins were minted in 1973. Most coins from this series were minted in various mints in the United States and in other mints in neighboring Asian countries. The 1 Piso was introduced in this series in 1972 making it the largest denomination of this coin series. Production of these coins stopped in 1974.

I had a bit of difficulty finding coins in this series in their first minting year. I had to spend a bit to complete a series that features coins in their first year of minting – 1967 for the 1 Sentimo to 50 Sentimos, and 1972 for the 1 Piso.

In this post, I will be featuring the PISO (Peso) coin.

1972 Piso
OBVERSE

“PISO”
Bust of Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
(Click name for more info)
“1”
“JOSE RIZAL”
Metal: Copper-nickel-zinc

1972 Piso
REVERSE

“REPUBLIKA NG PILIPINAS”
Coat of arms
“BANGKO SENTRAL”
1972
Weight: 14.28 g
Diameter: 33 mm
Thickness: 2.17 mm

1972 marked the introduction of the 1 Piso coin featuring the Philippine National Hero, Jose Rizal. This coin is also known as the “Rizal head” coin. These were minted in 1972, 1973, and 1974. However, there are no coins dated 1973 because all PISO coins minted on that year were all dated 1972. That would mean that the coin I have may have been minted in 1973.

In the late 90’s these coins were sought after by many due to the rumor that it contained white gold. I believe some people made a fortune out of these coins during those years. I remember a ring maker in the streets of Baguio city selling rings made from these PISO coins. If I remember correctly, he buys these coins for Php 30 each and sells rings for about Php 100 each. They were really shiny and have that yellowish tinge. His sign read, “White gold rings from old coins”. I don’t know how many people were gullible enough to believe him. You can read my take about this rumor here.

Trivia:

 1. This PISO coin was designed and engraved by the tenth Chief Engraver of the United States Mint, Frank Gasparro.

2. When Gasparro designed the PISO coin, he had just recently designed the Eisenhower Dollar. His initials “FG”, appear on the neck of Rizal just as they do on the neck of President Eisenhower.

3. Martial law was declared by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972. The same year these coins were minted and put in circulation.

4. These PISO coins were the first to have “BANGKO SENTRAL” on them.

I bought this particular coin for about Php 20. The condition was not so bad. I can still see the hair of Rizal on the coin. The initials FG are very faint on my coin, but it can be seen through a jewelers loupe. I’m proud to say that I also own a 1972 Eisenhower dollar.

This completes my post on the Pilipino Series coins of the Philippines.

I have updated the links to point to wikipedia instead of wikipilipinas. The later seems to be having problems.

Click the links below to view other coins of this series or click here to view the list of coins under the Pilipino Series.

Isang Sentimo (1 Centavo)
Limang Sentimos (5 Centavos)
Sampung Sentimos (10 Centavos)
Dalawamput Limang Sentimos (25 Centavos)
Limampung Sentimos (50 Centavos)

Enjoy!

~ by MAV on January 10, 2014.