The 74th edition of the coin-collecting hobby's annual Guide Book of United StatesCoins (popularly known as the "Red Book") debuted in April 2020. A special limited edition of 212copies was released with a custom goldfoil-stamped cover and a tip-in sheet celebrating the 100thanniversary of the opening of the Manila Mint. The limited print run sold out within six weeks. Sales ofthe special edition support the educational mission of the Philippine Collectors Forum.

The front cover of the Manila Mint Centennial special edition features the reverse design of the so-called Wilson Dollar (HK-449/450), which was struck at the Mint of the Philippine Islands when it opened in Manila in 1920.

The Philippine Collectors Forum was established in August 2003 at the American NumismaticAssociation's World's Fair of Money in Baltimore, Maryland. The group was founded by RaymondCzahor and Ken Seymore with the active support of ANA president John Wilson. Seventy-fivecollectors attended the first meeting-the annual convention's largest club attendance that year exceptfor the Boy Scouts of America. The Philippine Collectors Forum is a nonprofit group and an officialmember club of the ANA. It holds annual meetings at the World's Fair of Money. The Forum's missionis to promote education about U.S./Philippine coinage, medals, tokens, paper money, scrip, and othernumismatic items.

The Manila Mint traces its history back to the colonial era of the Philippine Islands. In April 1899, as acondition of the treaty ending the Spanish-American War, Spain transferred control of the Philippinesto the United States. One of the government's early tasks was to sponsor a new territorial coinage. Theresulting coins, introduced in 1903, were designed by Filipino silversmith, sculptor, engraver, and artprofessor Melecio Figueroa. They bear the names of both the Philippines (FILIPINAS, the Spanishname for the islands) and of the United States of America. The silver coins feature a femalepersonification of the Philippines before the volcanic Mount Mayon (northeast of the capital city ofManila). The minor coinage shows a young Filipino man, bare-chested and seated at an anvil with ahammer.

In the early years most of the coins were produced at the San Francisco Mint and then shipped to theislands. On February 18, 1918, the Philippine Legislature passed an appropriations bill for constructionof machinery for a new mint in Manila. The Great War was interfering with shipments from the UnitedStates. A local mint was seen as being more expedient and economical. In addition, a local mint wouldsupport the United States' goal of moving the Philippines toward its own governance and infrastructure.

The mint was built in Manila in the Intendencia Building, which housed the offices and hall of theSenate, and the offices and vaults of the Philippine Treasury. Its machinery was designed and built inPhiladelphia under the supervision of U.S. Mint chief mechanical engineer Clifford Hewitt, who alsooversaw its installation in Manila. The facility was opened, with formalities and machinedemonstrations, on July 15, 1920. The fanfare included the production of an official commemorativemedal in gold, silver, and bronze. The first specimen of these medals was struck by Speaker of theHouse of Representatives Sergio Osmeña (later president of the Commonwealth in the final years ofWorld War II).

The Manila mint produced coins for the Philippines from 1920 until Japanese forces invaded the islandsin 1941, at which time it ceased operation. (The Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints wouldstrike coins for the Philippines in 1944 and 1945.) Filipino and Filipino-American military servicemembers, guerrillas, civilians, and leaders were vitally important in the Allied victory in World War II.

The mint's buildings were largely destroyed by bombing during the liberation of the Philippines later inthe war.

The Commonwealth of the Philippines became an independent republic on July 4, 1946. Today thePhilippine coins of 1903 to 1945, including those struck at the mint in Manila, are importantmementoes of a significant chapter in U.S. history and numismatics. They are a testament to the closeties and special relationship between the United States and the republic and people of the Philippines.

The Philippine Collectors Forum is proud to honor the legacy of the Mint of the Philippine Islands withthe 1920-2020 commemorative limited edition of the Guide Book of United States Coins.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: PHILIPPINE SPECIAL EDITION REDBOOK(https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n22a03.html)