Trivia: How many soldiers on 50 peso bill?

While the fifty peso banknote from the New Design Series (NDS) is still in wide circulation, let's challenge ourselves to a little trivia:

How many soldiers can you spot on the obverse (front) of the 50 peso bill (NDS)?
(clue: there are more than 0 of them)

2010 BSP Statistics on Coins and Banknotes

In their 2010 Annual Report, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas gives us a glimpse on the volume of Philippine currency notes printed and coins minted during the past year.

Banknotes

870.05 million pieces printed

• 213.85 million pieces with the signature of President Benigno Aquino III (launched 25 Nov 2010)
• 10.0 million pieces of New Generation Banknotes (released 17 Dec 2010)

Currency retirement

• 603.3 million pieces (worth P35.7 billion) notes retired through currency disintegrator
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• 443.0 million pieces (worth P204.5 billion) worn-out currency notes retired
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2,956.8 million pieces (worth P746.7 billion) total banknotes in circulation as of 31 Dec 2010

Coins

582.02 million pieces minted

16,422.7 million pieces (worth P19.0 billion) total coins in circulation as of 31 Dec 2010

Looking at the figures of banknotes and coins in circulation, we can derive that if the population of the Philippines was around 94 million at the end of 2010 and all cash were distributed equally, each Filipino should have, P7,944 in banknotes and P202 in coins. Of course this does not include other forms of money such as bank deposits. Also, the average value of a banknote is P253 and coins are worth P1.16/piece on the average. Interesting!

How Philippine Banknotes are Printed

This is a very informative video from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that shows how our banknotes are printed. It also explains why with BSPs ability to print money, they don't just print more money.


video source

Thorough planning and deliberation starts the process of making money available to the public. First, the Bangko Sentral's Department of Economic Research determines currency demand based on the expected price movement as well as the growth of population and the economy.

After this, the Cash Department places the order with the Security Plant Complex which in turn procures the materials needed to produce and print the banknotes. When the designs of banknotes are changed, final approval by the President of the Republic is required.

From the approved design, a prototype banknote is prepared. The banknote image is then etched on a master dye from which printing plates are produced. Meanwhile, ink experts mix the exact colors of the money.

With the ink and plates ready, printing begins on special security paper that is composed of 80% cotton and 20% Philippine abaca. This combination gives it a distinctive texture that sets it apart from ordinary paper.

The sheets of banknote paper go through offset printing where 15 to 20 colors of the design are printed at a time. Next, the paper goes through the inaglio printing process which gives the money its embossed look and feel. Raised ink from intaglio printing requires drying for several days.

After this, the banknote sheets are submitted for a series of inspections. The serial numbers are then printed on each banknote which are again subjected to thorough inspection. The sheets are then cut and packed into bundles of 1,000 pieces each.

These are now delivered by the Security Plant to the Currency Management Group from where banks exchange or withdraw their currency requirements. From the banks, the banknotes finally find their way to the economy and our wallets.

Indonesian Island in New Philippine Banknotes

I just got hold of my very own New Generation Currency Banknotes. As author of this blog, it is a shame it took me this long to get my hands on them. However, as I had my chance to actually scrutinize them in much detail, I spotted a weird island on the map on the reverse side, south of Mindanao. I found from Google Earth that the island is actually a depiction of the northern portion of Pulau Karakelong of Indonesia! Now how can BSP miss Batanes and include an Indonesian Island? (Sorry BSP for pointing this out.)

The shape of the island on the banknote design is unmistakably that of Pulau Karakelong even if whoever traced the shape of the island actually included only the northern portion. Compare the enhanced inset in the illustration above to the one on the banknote.

The island appears on both the 20 and 50 peso bills which I actually have but I'm sure it also appears on the rest of the denominations.

Looking at the illustration above, the 50 peso bill especially, the banknote design could have been better (and politically correct) had the island been excluded. Now I'm wondering if the Bangko Sentral's reason for excluding Batanes was actually an excuse.

Error in Scientific Names on New Generation Banknotes

Aside from tourist spots, the reverse side of the New Generation Banknotes feature also feature endemic and notable animals such as the tarsier (P200) and the whale shark (P1000). Along with their common English name, the animals are also labeled by their scientific name. Unfortunately, the scientific names are wrongly written!

Scientific names are written in binomial nomenclature where the first word is the genus name whose first letter should be capitalized. The second word is the species name which should be all lower-case letters. In the case of our new banknotes, both the genus and scientific names are written with their first letters capitalized. What's more, scientific names should be italicized and they are not.

Wrong:
Rhincodon Typus

Correct:
Rhincodon typus

The BSP should correct these mistakes or our science students would be seriously mis-educated about binomial nomenclature.

Scientific names were also ALL-CAPS in the Flora and Fauna and Improved Flora and Fauna Series of coins but this recent mistake in the still-to-be-released-banknotes are much more obvious.

Others have also previously complained about geographic errors in the new bills wherein the dot showing the location of Tubbattaha Reef in the 1000-piso bill is about 300 km off the mark.