1928-M 20 Centavos Mule

In numismatics speak a “mule” is any coin minted using front and rear dies intended for two completely different coins. Most mules are the result of unintentional errors in the minting process. For example the Philippine 1918-S 5 centavos mule was the result of a minting error. Not so for the 1928-M 20 centavos mule though…

All 20 centavos coins minted in 1928 bearing the Manila mint mark (M) are considered mules (KM#174). The 1928-M has the expected 20 centavos obverse design but used a modified 1927 5 centavos die for the reverse. This was done to intentionally and quickly fill a need for 20 centavos coins which were in short supply at the time. Manila did not have any reverse dies for the 20 centavos coins due to the fact that those coins were minted in San Francisco at the time. So the similarly sized 5 centavos die from 1927 was modified to read 1928.

When compared to the regular issue 20 centavos coin the main differences on the reverse of the coin are the Manila mint mark (M), a slightly narrower shield and a larger date. Only 100,000 1928-M mules were produced making it a very low mintage circulated coin.