Beauche

Deang, Lilian
Dimayuga, John Ephraigm
Opulencia, Haricris
Valiente, Chesicon
Vallega, Patricia Mae
Whigan, Rey Alexander

“The Philippine Banknotes New Generation”

It is said that central banks redesign banknotes every 10 years. This is to prevent counterfeiters to produce exact copies of the current banknotes. But our former currency series has been in place for almost 25 years. That is why the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas decided to change our banknotes. It was December 6, 2010 when the new banknotes became available. All six of our banknotes have new designs but have the same size and color as the former currency series. There is a new BSP logo and Seal of the Republic of the Philippines in all of our new bills. They also featured different species, world heritage sites and iconic natural wonders here in the Philippines. For example, the known Banaue Rice Terraces is in the 20-peso bill, the Taal Lake in the 50-peso bill, the Mayon Volcano in the 100-peso bill and the famous Chocolate Hills in the 200-peso bill. Some species which are only found here in the Philippines are also included in the new banknotes like the Gian Trevally which is in the 50-peso bill, Butanding in the 100-peso bill, the Tarsier in 200-peso bill and the Blue-naped parrot in the 500-peso bill. The new banknotes still pay tribute to the Filipinos who played significant roles at various events of our nation’s history. They retained them in the Philippine banknotes, only they look younger and happier. The former banknotes are said to remain in circulation and will continue to be accepted for at least three years. This will give the public enough time to make full transition to our new generation currency. They are also planning change the current coins which are circulating in our country. But according to them, it will also take time to make this possible. The BSP said that the new Philippine banknotes will still be made of 80% cotton and 20% abaca; this is to support Filipino abaca farmers. We have been using abaca in our banknotes for a very long time, for it has improved durability and extended the life span of our banknotes. That is why they decided to still use abaca in our new generation currency. The BSP also said that the new generation currency series will be user friendly for the public. This is because the new generation banknotes have security features which can be easily recognized without even using special instruments. The new security features such as the watermark, security thread and security fibers even made the new generation banknotes harder to counterfeit. All in all, the new generation banknotes are made obviously better and more secured than our former currency series.