Philippines Piso Banknotes

The information about Philippines.

The Philippines is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. There are about 7,640 islands in the Philippines. The total area of the Philippines is 120,000 square miles, though the Philippines is the twelfth most populous country in the world with 109 million. The capital city is Manila and Quezon City is the largest city. The official languages in this country are Filipino and English. The Philippine peso is the official currency.

The history of the Philippine peso.

The Philippine peso (PHP) was established after the Philippines gained independence from the Spanish colony in 1898. However, it didn't last long in 1901 when the US took over the Philippines and introduced a new currency that pegged to the US dollar’s gold standard. Moreover, during World War II, Japan’s colony had occupied the Philippines, and a new currency introduction had happened again. Finally, on Jan 3, 1949, the Central Bank of the Philippines was established. Then, the Philippine peso was reestablished to the public.

The first banknote series of the peso was introduced in 1899 due to the establishment of the revolutionary republic headed by Emilio Aguinaldo. The denominations were available at 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 pesos. These banknotes were signed by Philippine Messrs to prevent copying. However, due to the short-lived republic, only the 1 and 5 pesos were in circulation.

After the colonization of the US. In 1903, the second series banknote of the peso was introduced and there were 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 500 pesos notes circulated. The denominations were allowed to print in Spanish. These banknotes were issued for about 30 years during WWI until WWII when Japan occupied the Philippines.

In 1942, the third series of pesos was described as the fiat currency and also known as the Japanese government-issued fiat peso notes. The first denomination of this was available at 1, 5, 10, 50 centavos, and 1, 5, 10 pesos. As a result of hyperinflation, hence, small denominations were canceled and the 100, 500, and 1 000 pesos were in circulation. These banknotes were designed with the same concept of a huge size of denominations on the facade and the denomination words in English on the reversed side. Further, all of them were carved “The Japanese Government” as a symbol of Japan’s control

After gaining independence, many series were in circulation such as the English series (1949-1969), the Pilipino series (1969-1977), the Ang Bagong Lipunan series (1978-1985), the BSP series (1985-20090, and lastly, the New Generation Currency series (2009). With the New Generation Currency series as the present series, the denominations are in 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1 000. This series was created to bring more security, and more durability with all banknotes was made of abaca and cotton.