Philippine WW-II Liberation Folk Art 1945

This is an interesting and original piece of folk art. When our American forces liberated the Philippines in 1944/1945, they brought with them Wartime Victory Coins produced in the United States.  The piece is made up of original Philippine Victory Coins bearing 1944 and 1945 dates. This piece is similar to stylistic Islamic metal scrolling art from Malaysia and Indonesia. The round object at the bottom of the piece is similar to examples of "Betel Boxes", traditional serving boxes for Betel Nuts!

The mosaic itself is 5'-2" long and 13-1/2" wide. It consists of an upper scrollwork piece figured as a stylized rooster. Below it is suspended a second scrollwork piece. The waist of the piece is comprised of three, 7x7 coin matrices containing 49 coins each. It looks like the suspending rings are silver soldered to each coin. The only defect that I can see is in the middle panel where 2 of the coin connecting rings have gone missing. Below the coin matrices is a very elaborate scrollwork piece, and below this is what appears to be a Betel Box.  

This piece is mounted to a fabric-covered plywood panel, which is the rear surface of a museum-quality shadow box measuring 69" x 17" x 4".  

The assembled panel and art piece weighs ~25 lbs, but shipping is going to be costly as it will need to be professionally secured and packed. If you want to avoid the shipping cost, I'll be happy to remove the art piece from the case and ship it free of charge.

History of these coins - On October 20, 1944, a few hours after his troops landed, General Douglas MacArthur waded ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte. That day, he made a radio broadcast in which he declared, “People of the Philippines, I have returned!” In January 1945, our forces invaded the main Philippine island of Luzon.

During the Japanese occupation between 1942-1945, there was a very active resistance movement in the Philippines and American intelligence was aware of the desperate economic situation, and the need to bring new coins and currency with them when they liberated the Philippines.

In preparation for General MacArthur's return to the Philippines, the Treasury Department ordered the Philadelphia, and San Francisco Mints to strike millions of Five Centavos coins. The Philadelphia Mint struck 21,198,000 Five Centavos dated 1944. There is no Mint Mark on the coins struck at Philadelphia. The San Francisco Mint Struck 14,040,000 Five Centavos dated 1944 and 72,796,000 dated 1945. Coins struck at San Francisco have a S Mint Mark.

When American forces liberated the Philippines in 1944 - 1945 they brought with them these Wartime Victory Coins.