Souvenir Treasures of World War II: Coinage of the Philippines

Dennis Tucker, a Life Member of the Philippine American National Historical Society, will give a talk on the first day of the American Numismatic Association's National Money Show in Atlanta. Scheduled for 2:00-3:00 Thursday afternoon, February 27, 2025, his lecture is titled "Souvenir Treasures of World War II: Coinage of the Philippines." The convention will be held at the Cobb Galleria Centre, 2 Galleria Parkway.

Millions of Americans served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, including tens of thousands who fought in the Philippines. When they returned home, many carried souvenirs of their service-including unusual silver and bronze coins that were made for the Philippines but bear the words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Sovereignty of the Philippine Islands was transferred from Spain to the United States in 1898, after the Spanish-American War. One of the first projects of the American administration was to create a new currency system tied to the U.S. dollar, with coins ranging from a bronze half centavo to a silver peso. Some of the coins were minted in Manila before the 1941 Japanese invasion; most were produced between 1903 and 1945 at American mints in Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco. Millions of the coins were produced in America and shipped over to supply the islands with currency during World War II.

In a richly illustrated presentation, Dennis Tucker explains this unique coinage and explores the strong wartime connection between the United States and the Philippine Islands. Are these coins rare? Many of them are rarer than regular-issue United States coins. How much are they worth today? They're all valuable, and some are very valuable-worth tens of thousands of dollars.

"You might have a treasure sitting in a relative's collection of mementoes from World War II," Tucker says.

Dennis Tucker is a Life Member of the American Numismatic Association, a retired Fellow of the Academy of Political Science, and an award-winning numismatic author. He served as publisher at Whitman Publishing from 2004 to 2024. He has written hundreds of articles and lectured on many subjects of United States and Philippine coins, medals, tokens, and paper money. He has been featured on NPR's "Planet Money" and in other national media.

For eight years Tucker advised the United States Treasury Department as numismatic specialist on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. In that role he lent his numismatic expertise to Treasury secretaries Jack Lew, Steven Mnuchin, and Janet Yellen. He was involved in the review of designs proposed for the Congressional Gold Medal that was awarded to Filipino Veterans of World War II.

Tucker's connection to the Philippines is personal as well as numismatic: his grandfather-in-law, Dr. Teofilo Rojas, was an Army Medical Corps dental surgeon and a Filipino veteran of World War II. Tucker is an active member of the nonprofit Philippine Collectors Forum, and of the Filipino-American Association of Greater Atlanta.

The American Numismatic Association is the largest organization for coin collectors in the United States. The National Money Show is the first of its two annual conventions. The 2025 show will attract thousands of visitors to the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, from Thursday, February 27, to Saturday, March 1. Visitors to the show can view millions of dollars in rare coins and numismatic treasures; buy, sell, and trade with hundreds of coin dealers; attend educational lectures and presentations from famous numismatists; and find out what their old coins may be worth.