A brief history of Philippine coins
Wala Lang
LEGAL TENDER Carlos IV, Isabel II, Alfonso XII, and American Regime coins used as wedding arras.
Bust-portrait coins with the likeness of Spanish Kings Carlos III, Carlos IV, and Fernando VII circulated in the Philippines starting in 1772 all through the turbulent post-1808 years of Spain’s Napoleonic occupation and when she began losing her Latin American colonies. The Mexican War of Independence began in 1810 and the last Galleon sailed in 1815.
Money in circulation consisted mainly of silver bust-portrait coins minted in Mexico. With independence, the new Latin American republics began minting their own coins inscribed with mottos objectionable to Philippine authorities, e.g., “Libertád,” “Firme y Feliz por la Unión,” Libre por la Constitución,” “Unión y Fuerza.” Just the same, trade brought the new coins to the Philippines.
The authorities therefore decided to “baptize” the coins through overstamping, initially with the inscription “HABILITADO POR EL REY N.S.D. FERN VII” and after the stamping machine broke down, with a simpler “F.7o” and “Y.II” when Queen Isabel II succeeded to the throne in 1833.
A decree was issued outlawing coins with holes, but complaints were many. It was the habit to string 13 coins together as wedding arras and there was an outcry against demonetizing such coins. Government therefore decided on a lawyerly solution, to “seal” the holes by stamping the crowned initials squarely on the hole.
Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II was established in 1851. It was authorized to issue banknotes. The notes were our first paper money and were in effect promises to replace them on demand with silver peso coins.
Matters had settled down after Napoleon’s defeat and in 1857, Isabel II issued a Royal Decree establishing the Casa de Moneda y Timbre de Filipinas. It was inaugurated in 1861 and began minting the so-called Isabelinas, gold and silver coins with the profile of Queen Isabel II. The Queen was deposed in 1868 but the Manila Mint continued producing Isabelinas dated 1868.
The Cortes invited Italian Duke Amadeo to succeed Isabel II, but he abdicated after three years, saying that Spain was ungovernable. Alfonso XII, son of Isabel II, became King but he died young and his yet unborn son became King Alfonso XIII. His mother Queen Maria Cristina (after whom the Mindanao Falls was named) was Regent until he came of age. It was Alfonso XIII who was on the throne in 1898 when Spain lost the Philippines to the US. Coins bearing the portrait busts of the series of rulers circulated.
With the declaration of Philippine independence on June 12, 1898, Emilio Aguinaldo formed the First Philippine Republic in Malolos, Bulacan. The Republic issued coins and paper money, although with the Republic on war footing, these coins are great rarities.
The victorious Americans found the monetary system impossible. Circulating was a jumble of old bust-portrait reales, Mexican and other Latin American pesos, US dollars, and others, in gold, silver, and copper of varying weights and fineness. Buyers and sellers had to figure out the equivalence of everything and international differences in value caused major inflows or outflows of gold or silver through arbitrage. The American colonial government decided monetary reform was in order. Old coins were demonetized and redeemed, the peso was pegged at half a US dollar, and new silver coins of a new design in denominations of one peso and 50, 20, and 10 centavo coins in silver, five centavo coins in nickel alloy, and one and half-centavo coins in copper.
The first notes issued during the American Regime were worded, “This certifies that there have been deposited in the Treasury of the PHILIPPINE ISLANDS SILVER PESOS payable on demand in Silver Pesos or in Gold Coin of the Unted States of equivalent value.” Later issues simply said that the note was legal tender and acceptable in settlement of debts, etc.
Special coins were minted for use in the Culion Leper Colony, inaugurated in 1906.
Guerrilla units were organized during the Japanese Occupation and issued paper money to support the resistance effort. Printing or, indeed, mimeographing was uncontrolled, the expectation being that they would be redeemed by government when the war ended.
Meanwhile, the Japanese Occupation government prohibited the use of American Regime money and indeed anything that mentioned the US. People had to exchange pre-war money with Japanese occupation issue. With business and international trade down, government revenues fell and had to resort to printing money to finance operations. This led to runaway inflation and, by 1943, the joke was that one needed a bayong-ful of Mickey Mouse money to buy a basketful of goods.
The Central Bank of the Philippines was created in 1949 and since then became the issuer of coins and paper money. I was Governor of the Central Bank from 1981 to 1984 and I remember a couple of related incidents.
The design of coins and paper money is studied and recommended by a Numismatic Committee and a proposal reached me for the issuance of a new note with portraits of the usual suspects, Philippine Revolution and Filipino American War Heroes. I scribbled a note asking if we didn’t have any other heroes. That’s why our thousand peso bill has Jose Abad Santos, Josefa Llanes Escoda, and Vicente Lim.
The ₱500 bill was supposed to have the image of then President Ferdinand E. Marcos. A drawing was submitted for my approval. It was so glamorized and bore just a faint resemblance to the real McCoy so to speak. I was about to send it back when I said to myself that if my face were to appear on a bank note, would I want it to look like the real ordinary me? The answer was obvious and I decided to send the glamour boy image to President Marcos for approval. He approved it immediately and printing began.
The first bills were ready for circulation in 1985 and I sent Bill No. 1 to Malacanang for the President to see. That was just before the snap election and we decided to delay its release. Then EDSA One happened. One of the first things that the Cory Administration did was to incinerate the entire batch and print a new one with Ninoy’s portrait. Of the edition with the handsome Marcos, only a handful of archival copies remain, along with the solitary piece that I had sent to Malacañang.
Not long afterward, a collector friend happened to mention that he had a ₱500 Marcos bill and I said to myself, “Aha!”
Note: Common names for American Regime (and probably Spanish Regime coins as well, were salapi for 50 centavo coins, bagol for five centavo coins, and kusing for half-centavo coins.
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