Gold coins and other museum treasures

Gold coins and other museum treasures
Source: Inquirer
Author: Ambeth Ocampo
Date: 2000-08-04 http://www.travelsmart.net/article/101697/

WASHINGTON, D.C.--What draws people to particular exhibits when they enter a museum? Is it the historical or artistic value of the object on display, or is it the monetary worth of an artifact? At the National Gallery, I watched a woman take a snapshot of the only work of Leonardo da Vinci this side of the United States. I wanted to suggest that it would be cheaper and better to buy a postcard, but that was rude so I quietly observed her. When the guard approached I expected him to reprimand the camera bug about flash photography and how it contributes to the deterioration of old paintings.

To my surprise the guard asked the woman hurrying on the way out, ''Do you know how much it is worth?" Stopped from heading off to the next item on her souvenir photo hunt, the woman gasped when told the painting was worth $150 million. Only then did she give the Da Vinci a second glance. She even had to be prodded to see the back of the painting where Da Vinci paid more praise to the beauty of his sitter. I guess Da Vinci, in the popular mind, is associated more with the star of the movie ''Titanic'' than the great Italian painter.

When I send students to the collection of pre-colonial artifacts in the Central Bank, they make a quick tour of the earthenware pottery, but are awed by the pre-colonial Philippine gold. Museum-goers are probably the same everywhere whether it be Manila or Washington, D.C. At the National Museum of American History, I walked through a hall filled with coinage and banknotes from around the world. Money always attracts attention so the hall was filled with visitors. Naturally, gold attracted more people than paper money and a multitude of coins made of lesser metals. In a small room filled with gold coins, I was drawn to the Spanish coins as these reminded me of tales of maps, pirates and buried treasure I read avidly when I was a boy. Though the profiles of Spanish Kings Carlos III and Ferdinand VII were everywhere, I was surprised to find out that many of these coins were minted outside Spain. How these gold onzas came from Spain's South American colonies and traveled to the Philippines is a story in itself. The coins reminded me of a time when the Catholic kings could boast of an overseas empire where the sun, literally, did not set. My interest in Philippine gold coins stemmed from the Manila visit of Bill Gates some years ago. What do you give a man who has everything? Well, the Ayala Corp. presented Gates with a boxed set of gold coins minted in the 19th-century Philippines. There were three coins of .875 gold in varying sizes depending on the denomination: the smallest at P1 weighed 1.6915 grams, P2 at 3.3830 grams and the biggest at P4 weighing 6.7661 grams. All coins carried the bust profile of the pudgy Spanish Queen Isabel II on one side and the Spanish coat of arms on the reverse. These gold coins are sometimes referred to as "Isabelinas."

If you want to see a statue of Isabel II in Manila you will find her standing outside Puerta Isabel in Intramuros facing the Bureau of Immigration and the National Press Club. A fascinating etymological aside from Alejandro Roces is that Isabel, notorious for her lovelife, gave us pera, the Philippine word for money. Roces says that when 19th-century coinage carried the likeness of Isabel II, her detractors referred to her as la perra (the bitch) and this simply caught on to become our pera.

A royal decree in 1861 established the Casa de Moneda in Manila that melted down gold onzas from South America circulating in the Philippines and converted these into the gold Isabelinas that proudly carried the name "Filipinas" on the reverse of the coin below the Spanish coat of arms. Officially, Isabelinas were minted from 1861, the year the Casa de Moneda was founded, to 1868 when Isabel was deposed. Coins carrying the profile of Alfonso XII were minted but according to tradition, people preferred Isabelinas which were thus continuously minted in Manila till 1877 but kept the minting date 1868. This explains why 1868 Isabelinas are relatively easy to find today. The international value of Isabelinas varies according to rarity and condition. One coin catalogue puts the following price ranges for Isabelinas: P4 can be had for as low as $100 and as high as $8,000. Two pesos from $50 to $3,000 and P1 from $45 to $1,000. Whatever they are worth in terms of gold value, Isabelinas are important not only as the first gold coins minted in the Philippines, but Isabelinas also mark the first time the country's name "Filipinas" appeared on its coinage.

While the Philippines is one of the major sources of gold in the world--once upon a time we were one of the top 10 producers of gold worldwide--we hardly see or use gold coins today. When the Isabelinas ceased to be minted, gold continued to be panned and mined in the Cordilleras or Paracale, yet the Philippines did not mint gold coins from the 19th century till 1970 when a commemorative coin was struck to mark the Manila visit of Pope Paul VI. Where did all that Philippine gold go?