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Showing posts from March, 2021

The Lapu Lapu Commemorative Banknote and Silver Medal

In Numismatic world, we are very particular with who will be the featured “Hero” in a certain coin especially here in the Philippines. History as it dictates, the most popular is Jose Rizal, our national hero. However, there is another hero who creates his own name and is way ancient than Jose Rizal. Lapulapu or Lapu-Lapu, whose name was first recorded as Çilapulapu, was a datu of Mactan in the Visayas. Modern Philippine society regards him as the first Filipino hero because of his resistance to imperial Spanish colonization. He is best known for the Battle of Mactan that happened at dawn on April 27, 1521, where he and his warriors defeated the forces of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his native allies Rajah Humabon and Datu Zula. Magellan's death ended his voyage of circumnavigation and delayed the Spanish occupation of the islands by over forty years until the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi in 1564. Legazpi continued the expeditions of Magellan, leading to the