U.S. Manila Mint Type Set

In 1902 a bill was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, authorizing a new and distinct coinage to be struck for use in the United States Territory of the Philippines.

The bill provided that the coins should be struck at Manila if, practicable, (or in U.S. mints at a charge covering the reasonable cost of the work) and that subsidiary and minor coinage should bear devices and inscriptions expressing a dual concept - the sovereignty of the United States, and the fact that the coins were for circulation in the Philippine Islands. (Shafer, 1961)

Despite the intent of the 1902 legislation that coins be struck at Manila, it would be nearly twenty years before this was accomplished.

On February 8, 1918, the Philippine legislature passed a bill appropriating 100,000 pesos for the construction of machinery for a new mint. This bill was signed by Governor-General Harrison eight days later. The machinery was designed and built in Philadelphia under the supervision of Clifford Hewitt, then chief engineer of the United States mint. In June 1919, it was assembled, tested and found satisfactory. It was then shipped to the Philippine Islands via the Panama Canal, arriving at Manila in November. Mr. Hewitt supervised the installation of the machinery and trained the Filipino employees of the mint. The mint was formally opened on Thursday morning, July 15, 1920. (Perez, 1921)

The Manila Mint was the only United States branch mint ever established outside the continental limits of the U.S.A.