Expert: Neil S Berman - 6/26/2009

Question
Hello,
My name is Janice and my father was in the Navy during WWII.  He would bring coins home to his mother from every where he went.  I now have that collection.  The most fascinating coin to me is a small golden coin that has a picture of a lady on the front and the words "Ten Centavos Filipinas" on the front and a shield with a bird with outstretched wings on the back with the words "United States of America" and the date 1944.  I asked my father about this and he told me there was a time when the USA owned or occupied the Philippines but didn't have much else he could tell me about this coin.  Is it rare? Is it valuable? Or is it just a nice memento from my father's days at sea?
Thank you very much for any information you can give me on this coin.
Most Sincerely,
Janice

Answer
The US acquired the Philippines and Cuba from Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the one where Theodore Roosevelt won a Medal of Honor charging up San Juan Hill in Cuba. From 1898 until until 1900 it was a Military District. In 1901 the military was replaced by a US civilian administration, and in 1935 it became the Commonwealth of the Philippines, but with the new government ceding territory for US Naval bases, just like Cuba. After the war, it became an independent republic, but until then the US Mint struck all the coins from 1903 until 1945.