Php Money History

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Divine Word College of Laoag
LaoagCity

History of The Philippine Money

Project in Basic Finance

Submitted By: Course: BSBA OM – II

Submitted To:

Pre-Hispanic Era

At least 2000 years before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Philippines is home to small seafaring communities. These communities traded with neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and China through barter.

Chinese Ming Dynasty porcelain and metalware have been unearthed in various parts of the Philippines. Tropical items such as gold pieces, beeswax, and pearls were among the trading goods of pre-colonial Pilipinos; Chinese merchants brought with them porcelain, metalware and silk.

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The Philippines' first coin was the Penniform Gold Barter Ring that the country adapted. This coin is believed to have been circulated between the eighth and the 14th centuries. Specimens of varisized gold artifacts resembling this type have been recovered from many archaeological sites in Laguna, Rizal, Mindoro, Cebu, Leyte and Bohol together with 12th- 14th-century Oriental ceramic tradewares. These gold rings were probably used by the Filipinos' ancestors in trading with the Chinese.

A coin in the form of a small conical gold nugget, called the piloncito, appeared next. On its flat base was an embossed inscription, which some scholars say is the character Ma, or the letter M, in the ancient Tagalog script.

The term piloncito comes from the word pilon, a local sugar container that resembles the coin. They are engraved with the Brahmanic character “ma” which looks like an upside down “R”. We can only guess that this character refers to the pre-colonial kingdom of Ma-yi which is roughly the Philippines we know today.

Spanish Era (1521-1897)

The Galleon Trade, which started during the colonization of the Philippines in 1565 and lasted for 250 years was responsible for transforming Manila into a trade center for oriental goods. These were brought across the Pacific, in exchange for odd-shaped silver coins called cobs or macuquinas. Other coins that followed were the dos mundos or pillar dollars in silver, the counterstamped coins and the portrait series ,also in silver. In the 18th century, the Royalty of Spain authorized the production of copper coins by the Ayuntamiento or Municipality of Manila in response to the acute shortage of fractional coins. These were called barrillas which first appeared in 1728.In 1852, the first banknotes called pesos fuertes were issued, and in 1861,the Casa de Moneda de Manila minted the first gold coins with the word "Filipinas " inscribed, which were called Isabelinas and Alfonsinos.

The first paper money circulated in the Philippines, Pesos Fuertes, were issued in 1852 by El Banco Espanol Filipino de Isabel II, the first bank established in the country. The banknote, "Strong Pesos" in English, had denominations of 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100.

With the Spaniards, who arrived in the early 16th century, came the coins of Spain and Mexico. Local currency took in the minted cobs of various polygonal shapes, known locally as hilis kalamay, the round- milled coins that bore portraits of Spanish monarchs, and the beautiful Mexican silver Pillar Dollar, or Dos Mundos, which were predominantly used in many parts of the world. The Dos Mundos was highly regarded for the integrity of its silver content and weight. The barilla is believed to have been the first coin struck in the Philippines. This was a crude brass coin approximately equivalent to one centavo. Available specimens show the inscription on the outer edge - Barilla, Ano de 1728 - and the coat of arms of the City of Manila in the inner circle.

In 1766 a second type of barilla, made of copper, about half the size of the first Spanish barilla, appeared. The Tagalog, like the Mexicans, pronounced the double / as y, and small coins, or change, came to be known as barya.

Other coins used in the country between 1782 and 1835 were varieties of the octavo and the quarto, bearing the names of Spanish rulers and the coat of arms of Spain. Eight octavos, or four quartos, were equivalent to one real; and the eight reales equaled one peso.

Revolutionary Period (1898-1899)

On August 23,1896,the Cry of Balintawak, headed by Andres Bonifacio signaled the start of the Philippine Revolution. After General Emilio Aguinaldo's proclamation as President of the First Philippine Republic.

Asserting its independence, the Philippine Republic of 1898 under General Emilio Aguinaldo issued its own coins and paper currency backed by the country’s natural resources.
One peso and five peso notes printed as Republika Filipina Papel Moneda de Un Peso and
Cinco Pesos were freely circulated. 2 centimos de peso copper were also issued in 1899.

The American Regime (1900-1941)

When the Americans took over the Philippines in 1901,the US Congress passed the Philippine Coinage Act, which authorized the mintage of silver coins from 1903 to 1912. Subsequently, Silver Certificates were issued until 1918. These were replaced with Treasury Certificates from 1918 to 1935. The American Government deemed it more economical and convenient to mint silver coins in the Philippines, hence, the re-opening of the Manila Mint in 1920, which produced coins until the Commonwealth Period. This also became the first seat of the Central Bank in 1949.

The American authorities issued silver certificates series dated 1903 to 1918, then later replaced these with treasury certificates. The liberation of the Philippines in 1944 gave rise to the Victory notes Series No. 66, wherein the word "Victory" was overprinted on the new treasury certificates. Eventually, these Victory Notes were overprinted with Central Bank of the Philippines to announce its establishment in 1949.

The Japanese Occupation (1942-1945)

The outbreak of World War II caused serious disturbances in the Philippine monetary system. Two kinds of notes circulated in the country during this period. The Japanese Occupation Forces issued war notes in big denominations. Provinces and municipalities, on the other hand, issued their own guerrilla notes or resistance currencies, most of which were sanctioned by the Philippine government in-exile, and partially redeemed after the war.

Between 1941 and 1945, the Japanese Occupation forces printed millions of paper bills of several denominatons to replace US- Philippine currency. The notes, as fiat money, had no back up reserves, thus, Filipinos dubbed dit "Mickey Mouse" money since it was next to worthless. During the worst inflation in the Philippine history, Filipinos would go to the market laden with "bayongs" (native woven bags) of "Mickey Mouse" bills since one duck egg cost 75 pesos, and a box of matches more than 100 pesos.

Guerrilla Notes or Resistance currencies were issued by different provinces and, in some instances, municipalities through their local currency boards to show resistance against the Japanese occupation. Most guerrilla notes were in low denominations since they were needed for everday circulation.

The Philippine Republic

Republic Act No.265 created the Central Bank of the Philippines (CBP) on January 3, 1949, which was vested the power of administering the banking & credit system of the country. Initially, the CBP issued the Victory Notes with the overprint "Central Bank of the Philippines " in 1949. The first official banknotes issued by the Central Bank were the English seriesin 1951,followed by the Pilipino series in 1967, the Ang Bagong Lipunan series in 1973 and the New Design series in 1985. Central Bank coins of the English series were also issued in 1959, followed by the Pilipino series in 1967, and the Ang Bagong Lipunan series in 1975. The Flora and Fauna series were introduced in 1983, and subsequently, the improved version in 1992, until the demonetization of all the series in 1998.

Established in 1993, the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas issued the BSP series incorporating the new seal of the central monetary authority and and enhanced security features. The BSP's Security Plant Complex produces the following currencies incurrent circulation, 1000, 500, 200, 100, 50, and 20 peso banknotes and 10, 5, and 1 peso and 25, 10, 5 and 1 sentimo coins.

Banknotes of the Philippine peso are issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) for circulation in the Philippines. The smallest amount of legal tender in wide circulation is 20 peso and the largest is 1000 peso. The front side of each banknote features prominent people in the country's history while the reverse side depicts landmarks and events in history. While the 5- and 10-peso denominations have been concurrently offered in coins in recent years, the 5- and 10-peso notes have not been demonetized.

Source

http://kahimyang.info/kauswagan/blogs/743-philippine_banknotes___paper_money__then_and_now

http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/history/story1.asp

http://pinoykollektor.blogspot.com/2011/08/philippine-coins-type-set.html

http://famouswonders.com/filipino-peso/

http://aboutphilippines.ph/filer/History-of-Philippine-Money.pdf

http://www.kartonista.com/art/history-of-philippine-money.html

http://neilyamit.hubpages.com/hub/History-of-Philippine-currency#

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Philippine_peso