Part I    Piloncitos This is Part II of our Philippine Money series, and Part I is linked above.  We have started talking about Philippine money and within that list, one of the probably, oldest system of them all is, The Barter Rings. According to the Central Bank of the Philippines, the trade among the early Filipinos and with traders from the neighboring islands was conducted through barter. The inconvenience of barter later led to the use of some objects as medium of exchange. Gold, which was plentiful in many parts of the islands, invariably found its way into these objects that included the Piloncitos, small bead-like gold bits considered by the local numismatists as the earliest coin of the ancient Filipinos, and gold barter rings. During the early times of the Galleon Trade or the infamous "Kalakalang Galyon", the earliest Filipinos traded with gold ring-like ingots, very similar to the first coins invented in the Kingdom of Lydia in present day Turkey. These barter r

When we talk about the kind of monetary system in the Philippines, one of probably the oldest kind are the Piloncitos. Piloncitos or also known as Bulawan, are tiny engraved gold coins or weights found in the country from the Archaic period or the pre-Hispanic era. We have taught by our beloved teachers about the Barter during those times. It is the way trade among the early Filipinos and with traders from neighboring islands was conducted. The inconvenience of barter later led to the use of some objects as a medium of exchange. Gold, which was plentiful in many parts of the islands, invariably found its way into these objects that included the Piloncitos, small bead-like gold bits considered by the local numismatists as the earliest coin of ancient Filipinos, and gold barter rings. The word is derived from Spanish "Piloncitos", meaning "little weights." Piloncitos is presumably an offshoot of the silver and may have evolved into the bullet or Pod duang coinage of S

A lot of people nowadays wanted to collect something, might it be from a hobby or just plain interest on something. I myself on the other hand, is fond of collecting Coins, among others. I have written this to encourage you to do same, not just so you can be a part of a certain group but to gain something of great value in the future. In an interview with Mr. Rod Gillis, an Education Director for the American Numismatic Association, he says that, "If you are new to Coin collecting, I would like to spend a moment talking to you about, perhaps the most important decision that you're going to make in your collecting career, and that is, HOW TO COLLECT." There really are a lot of people who are fond of collecting Coins, not just in the US, but all around the world. There are people who collects Coins from the places they visit, some are collecting Coins from the year of their birth, some are collecting Coins if they see a certain animal in there or if it is shiny or

When we talk about Philippine Coins, there’s always discussions about commemorative coin issued by The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas or Central Bank of the Philippines. For every list, there’s always common, the number one. Talking about the first commemorative coin of the Philippines will bring us way back to Pre 1980’s, particularly the 1940’s, when the first Commemorative Coin was minted. The theme was the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese by General Douglas MacArthur. After the granting of independence to the Philippines in 1946, no coins were minted for the Philippine Republic until 1958, other than a small silver commemorative issue in 1947 to honor General Douglas MacArthur. Totals of 200,000 50 centavos and 100,000 one-peso coins were minted with the general's image on the obverse and the national coat-of-arms on the reverse. Struck at the San Francisco Mint, they carry the "S" mintmark below the date. This commemorative Silver peso to honor Gen