Just like with other countries, the Philippine coins have changed their designs multiple times throughout the years. The circulating ones during my early childhood were the flora and fauna series. This collection which ran from 1983 to 1994 showcased native animals and plants on the reverse and prominent historical figures on the obverse.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_and_Fauna_Series#
These coins were iconic especially the 1 peso coin that has the tamaraw. They were durable and large, especially at the hands of little children like myself back then. Another significant characteristic that they had was that the 50-cent, 1 peso, and 2 peso coins were actually made of cupronickel metal alloy. This meant that they were 75% copper and 25% nickel.

So let's say the average weight of a 1 peso tamaraw coin was 9.5 grams. That means 7.12 grams of it was pure copper and 2.37 grams was nickel. The current price for cupronickel is $6 per kilo so a 1 peso tamaraw coin would be roughly 3.32 pesos today. That's interesting if you consider that it has tripled its intrinsic value while the actual purchasing power of the peso has weakened by over 10 times since 1983.

The successor of the flora and fauna was the new design series which replaced the reverse with the Philippine Central Bank logo. It was significantly smaller and was minted from 1995 to 2017. Some of its coins still had intrinsic value like the 10-peso coin which was a bimetallic coin made up of a copper-nickel outer ring and aluminum-bronze center. The 5-peso coin on the other hand was nickel-brass. The 1 peso coin was also made up of cupronickel alloy similar to the tamaraw coin. But it was smaller and lighter at just around 6.1 grams or 2.13 pesos intrinsic value.

But the new design series 1 peso was changed to a stainless steel composition due to an increasing cost of minting the coins. It came to a point back then that there were reports of coins being smuggled outside the country for its metal content. These coins are still in circulating but are getting phased out. The 1 peso coins minted from 1995 to 2003 are the ones that contain cupronickel alloy.

The latest coins in circulation are the new generation series. They are all stainless steel and practically has zero intrinsic value. From time to time, I scan my coin purse for older 1 peso coins and it puts a smile on my face whenever I get a cupronickel variant. I am collecting them but not to the extent of being considered hoarding since they are still legal tender. What I like about coins is that they are sturdy pieces of history that you can show and pass on to future generations. Each of them has their own story to tell.

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