Emilio Aguinaldo and the Two Centavo Copper Coin

Part I      Piloncitos

Part II     Barter Rings

Part III    Alfonso Coin

This is Part IV of our Philippine Money Series. Earlier Parts are linked above.

We will call this Era of our currency The Revolutionary Period. Before we discuss anything about our Money system during the Revolutionary Period, you should learn that the Philippines is under the Ruling of the Spaniards from 1565 to 1898, as the Colonization starts with the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi's expedition on 13th of February. Then it all ended when America defeated Spain on "The Great American War". Of course, the Philippines then became a territory of the United States.

Emilio Aguinaldo

When the U.S. declared war on Spain, Emilio Aguinaldo saw a possibility that the Philippines might achieve its independence; the U.S. hoped instead that Aguinaldo would lend his troops to its effort against Spain. He returned to Manila on May 19, 1898 and declared Philippine independence on June 12.

On 10 December 1898, Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War and ceded the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the United States.  The US had been active in the Philippines since Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay in May 1898. Philippine rebels under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence on 12 June and began attacking Spanish forces throughout the archipelago.  US forces arrived to besiege Manila and tensions immediately increased between the US forces and Aguinaldo’s forces.  The Spanish in Manila made an agreement with US forces to surrender the city after providing only token resistance to reaffirm Spanish honor.  US forces subsequently attacked Manila on 13 August and took the city without Filipino help, although the Filipinos did seize some of Manila’s suburbs.   Aguinaldo’s men returned to their trenches and began their own “peaceful” siege of the city, except this time the Americans were the ones in Manila being besieged. 

Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy QSC CCLH was a Filipino revolutionary, politician and military leader who is officially recognized as the first and the youngest President of the Philippines and first president of a constitutional republic in Asia.

Emilio Aguinaldo fought for a free and independent Philippines, first against Spain and then against the United States. When the Philippines declared itself an independent republic in 1898 and Aguinaldo became its president, a significant milestone was reached in the struggle against colonial rule in Asia. Well, that's the short story, and we will not tackle the long version here ;-)

Emilio Aguinaldo is officially recognized as the first President of the Philippines, but this is based on his term of office during the Malolos Republic, later known as the First Philippine Republic.

Aguinaldo was vested with the authority to produce currencies under the Malolos Constitution of 1898.   At the Malolos arsenal, two types of two-centavo copper coins were struck.  Revolutionary banknotes were printed in denominations of 1, 5 and 10 Pesos.  These were handsigned by Pedro Paterno, Mariano Limjap and Telesforo Chuidian.  With the surrender of General Aguinaldo to the Americans, the currencies were withdrawn from circulation and declared illegal currency.

Unfortunately, I can't find anywhere within the online world any coin from this period being sold or auctioned. Well, they may have destroyed it all. 

Comment below if you happen to know any bidding or auction about this two-centavo copper coins.

Cheerio!