SEC. 10. That the silver Philippine pesos herein before authorized may be coined at the mint of the government of the Philippine Islands at Manila, or arrangements may be made by the said government with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States for their coinage, or any portion thereof, at any of the mints of the United States at a charge covering the reasonable cost of the work.

SEC. 11. That the silver Philippine peso herein before authorized shall bear devices and inscriptions to be prescribed by the government of the Philippine Islands, and such devices and inscriptions shall express the sovereignty of the United States, that it is a coin of the Philippine Islands, the denomination of the coin, and the year of the coinage.

SEC. 12. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed, when requested by the government of the Philippine Islands, to cause to be made and prepared any drawings, designs, and plates, and execute any coinage, engraving, or printing of notes and certificates authorized by this act, and to make a proper charge for the same, covering as nearly as may be the actual cost, which shall be defrayed

from the revenues of said islands.

SEC. 13. That section seventy-eight of the act of July first, nineteen hundred and two, and all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act, and all provisions of law in force in the Philippine Islands making any form of money legal tender after December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and three, except as provided in this act, are hereby repealed.

Approved, March 2, 1903.

The Philippine Commission by appropriate legislation provided for carrying into effect the provision of said act of Congress. (See Appendix, pp. 61–91.)

COINS COINAGE.

In anticipation of legislation providing for a special coinage system for the Philippine Islands, the Philippine Commission, in December, 1901, adopted a resolution appointing Commissioners T. H. Pardo de Tavera and Benito Legarda a special committee to confer with competent persons and obtain suggestions and designs from native artists, if possible, for the Philippine coins. The report of this committee, including photographic designs, was forwarded to this Bureau by the civil governor of the Philippine Islands soon after the appointment of said committee, and was retained here pending Congressional action. Among the same were designs by Mr. Melecio Figueroa, of Manila, who had taken a prize at a competitive examination in Madrid and who had studied art in Rome, which were preferred by the Secretary of War and officials of this Bureau, and which may be described as follows:

There were two Figueroa designs for the obverse, to express "that it is a coin of the Philippine Islands," one for the silver and the other for the nickel and copper coins, and one design only for the reverse, to "express the sovereignty of the United States," the latter a shield surmounted with an eagle with outstretched wings, unmistakably American, and at the same time so different from the devices on the United States silver dollar, fifty-cent piece, and quarter as not to be easily confounded. This device is surrounded by the legend, "United States of America. 1903."

The first of the obverse designs is the entire figure of a Filipino woman lightly clothed in loose costume, with tresses floating in the wind. She holds in her right hand a hammer which rests on an anvil. In the background is seen the Mayon volcano, a perfect cone, therefore typical in that none other of such symmetry exists. The legend for the peso, surrounding the figure, being, "One peso Filipinas."

The other obverse design substitutes for the female figure as described the figure of a man seated by an anvil, with one elbow resting thereon, and grasping a hammer in the right hand, while the left rests on the left knee. Both figures are well proportioned. the pose natural and

graceful, and the figures well modeled.

The design conveys the thought that it is by earnest labor that the Filipinos must work out their destiny, under the guidance of the United States.

It takes some six months to make the dies necessary for any considerable coinage, and a knowledge of this fact led the Secretary of War to urge upon the Philippine Commission the necessity of complying with section 82 of the act of Congress approved July 1, 1902, above quoted, which authorized the Philippine government to prescribe devices and inscriptions "which shall express the sovereignty of the United States, that it is a coin of the Philippine Islands, the denomination of the coin, and the year of the coinage."

While the Philippine Commission decided to take no action under the law authorizing subsidiary coinage until a definite unit of value was fixed by Congress, the War Department, in anticipation that Congress would grant the frequently recommended currency legislation, continued to urge upon the Commission the necessity of officially adopting such devices, and in the meantime took up with the Director of the Mint and the expert engravers of the Philadelphia mint the question of the preparation of the proper dies.

On December 18, 1902, the Philippine Commission prescribed the Figueroa obverse design of the native woman for all the silver pieces and the other obverse design of the sitting Filipino for the copper pieces, the reverse being common to all.

The final act of Congress--Philippine coinage system-was passed March 2, 1903. On March 7 the Secretary of the Treasury submitted for inspection and approval a specimen of the new peso coin for the Philippine Islands.

In the desire not to deny to the Philippine government the use, expert advice, and machinery of the Mint Bureau of the Treasury Department, upon request of the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Treasury consented to purchase the bullion reported necessary for the Philippine coinage. It was arranged that the superintendents of the two mints assigned to the Philippine coinage should pay for the bullion as delivered from the "bullion fund" and render monthly reports to this Bureau, which would reimburse the mints by deposit of an equivalent amount in gold in the United States Treasury. This plan has been satisfactorily followed by daily cooperation between the Bureau of the Mint of the Treasury Department and this Office.

At first the Treasury Department calculated and promised a monthly coinage of P2,000,000, estimating the capacity of the San Francisco mint 1,000,000 and the Philadelphia mint 1,000,000. After careful consideration as to the cost of bullion delivered at the various mints, and particularly the cost to the insular government for the transportation of the finished coins to the Philippine Islands, and the fact that experience had shown that the San Francisco mint could turn out each month P2,000,000, it was decided to confine the coinage of pesos to San Francisco and the subsidiary and minor coins to the Philadelphia mint, which is specially equipped for this class of coinage.

Purchases of silver bullion were made on Mondays and Thursdays on quotations submitted to the Director of the Mint of the Treasury Department, who has kindly consulted and cooperated with this Bureau as to the desirability of such purchases. Bills to cover the same are paid by this Bureau.

A contract was entered into with the Scovill Manufacturing Com

pany to furnish blanks in nickel and in bronze for the 5-centavo, 1-centavo, and one-half centavo pieces, which require only the stamp of the United States Mint after delivery.

The purchases of bullion were made and allotted to the respective mints according to the needs and as dictated by economy.

PURCHASE OF BULLION.

The first purchase of silver was made March 26, 1903, twenty-four days after the passage of the act. The following amounts were appropriated and placed to the credit of the disbursing agent for expenses in connection with the Philippine coinage:

The disbursements to date of this report, October 31, have been:

For purchase of silver bullion, San Francisco..

$3, 962, 935. 20 2, 324, 589. 29 99, 108.00 81, 861.62 99,000.00 1, 494. 63 9,570.00 9, 237.26 7,231.54 4, 685. 43 1,755.86 13, 659. 48

6,615, 128. 31

The blanks for minor coinage were furnished under a contract at a cost of 0.2812 cents per pound for the bronze blanks and 0.5388 cents per pound for the nickel blanks. The United States mints at Philadelphia and San Francisco are paid a uniform rate of 1 cent per silver peso or 2 per cent for coining.

The purchases of silver bullion have necessarily been made from a limited number of corporations, who practically control the output. During the period covered by this report, payments have been made for the following:

Statement showing face value, gold value, silver consumed, cost and seigniorage on Philippine silver coin made at and shipped from United States mint at San Francisco, by months, from April 1 to October 31, 1903.

Statement showing face value, gold value, silver consumed, cost, und seigniorage on Philippine silver coins manufactured at and shipped from Philadelphia mint, to November 1, 1903.

Philippine minor coin made and shipped from Philadelphia mint, to November 15, 1903.

Statement of seigniorage on Philippine silver and minor coin shipped from the San Francisco

and Philadelphia mints.

On silver coin from San Francisco
On silver coin from Philadelphia

Total on silver coin...

Seigniorage on minor coin...

Grand total..

From the above should be deducted cost of coining, transportation, insurance, packing, and miscellaneous expenses..

$789, 025. 14 508, 323. 19

1,297, 348. 33

198, 296.52

1,495, 644. 85

256, 930. 35

Net seigniorage to be credited to the Philippine government.... 1, 238, 714. 50 In addition to the above, the preparation, transportation, and insurance of the P10,000,000 silver certificates cost the sum of $39,365.36,

and the preparation, advertising, and delivery of $6,000,000 of certificates of indebtedness cost $2,373.83.

The prices at which silver has been offered and accepted ranged from 49.10 cents per ounce, which was the first rate paid, to 60.47 cents per ounce. The average price per ounce for the period has been

55.193 cents.

COMPLETION OF BULLION PURCHASES.

In pesos, subsidiary, and minor coinage there have been shipped to Manila a total of 17,881,650, which the Philippine Commission have advised are ample for inaugurating the new Philippine coinage, when supplemented by the Spanish-Filipino coins in the islands, which are to be recoined. A recent careful estimate, after examination of the archives, shows, in the opinion of the Commission, that instead of the hitherto estimated Pfs. 6,000,000 to Pfs. 8,000,000 there are from Pfs.11,000,000 to Pfs.12,000,000 of this Spanish-Filipino coinage of all denominations in the islands.

It is the purpose of the Philippine Commission to demonetize Mexican currency on January 1, 1904, on which date the Commission purposes to take steps to get into the treasury all Spanish-Filipino coinage, ship same to San Francisco for recoinage into new Filipino coins, and reship to the islands by returning transport, thus giving an amount of about P28,000,000 in the new coinage, the minimum sum originally estimated as adequate for the initial circulation of the new coins, and which will, within the judgment of the Commission, furnish sufficient silver for recoinage to serve all purposes for a long time to come. The Commission has, therefore, with the approval of the Secretary of War, suspended further purchases of silver bullion.

SHIPMENT OF COINAGE TO MANILA.

This Bureau assumed entire charge of the delivery of these coins to Manila. The first shipment of Philippine coinage was made from the San Francisco mint by United States Army transport sailing May 1, 1903, consisting of P1,200,000. The first shipment from the Philadelphia mint was made on May 26, 1903, and forwarded via New York and thence by steamer to Manila, consisting of P2,000,000. The shipment of this completed coinage was a matter fraught with much risk and responsibility, demanding serious attention to protect the Philippine government from the embarrassment which would follow a loss, and at the same time to secure its expeditious transfer to Manila at the minimum cost.

In so far as shipments from San Francisco were concerned, with the cooperation of the military establishment, it has been the practice to designate some officer already under orders to proceed to the Philippine Islands to report to the superintendent of the mint at San Francisco thirty days prior to the date on which he had already been ordered to proceed to Manila. He is there required to daily superintend the packing of the Philippine coinage, and just prior to the monthly sailings of the transports the same is carried by him under military guard in Government wagons to the transport, where it is stored in a suitable compartment under proper guard, and upon arrival at Manila is delivered to the treasury of the Philippine Islands by the officer who has accompanied it from San Francisco. This practice has been satisfactorily followed with each monthly shipment.