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Do Philippine commemorative coins
enjoy full legal tender status? All
commemorative coins issued by the BSP are legal tender in the Republic of the
Philippines. However, a number of
older commemoratives have been demonetised, which means that they have lost
their status as legal tender currency. One
should keep in mind, however, that these commemoratives are legal tender only
up to the value stamped upon their face.
These face values, which are not directly related to the coins’
intrinsic worth (in terms of precious metal content) or their value as
collector’s items, are usually just a fraction of the actual market
price. For example, an American Eagle
bullion coin (issued by the US Mint) containing one troy ounce of pure gold
bears a nominal/face value of just $50 but is worth over eight times that
amount at current commodity prices.
Similarly, the 2,500-Peso gold coin issued by the Philippines in 1980
has a melt value of about twice its face value and a collector value probably
exceeding three times that number. With
this in mind, I certainly wouldn’t recommend using a 25-Peso silver coin to
pay for bus fare (although you could if you really wanted to). Back to
Philippine Commemorative Coins: A Brief
Introduction. |
