Crisp Banknotes for Christmas

Expect plenty of crisp peso bills this Christmas season!

Filipinos love to give away cash as Christmas gifts to their relatives. Of course, these banknotes need to be crisp and fresh. Filipino children will frown at worn out bills, but will be very grateful for even a new, shiny twenty-peso bill.

The banks are prepared for this annual spike in the demand for new banknotes. The Bangko Sentral prints and releases more fresh bills as long queues of bank clients withdraw specifically in denominations of new 20, 50, and 100 peso bills.

100 Peso University of the Philippines Silver Proof

image courtesy of dekada_collectibles and jt40tmh of ebay

100 Piso Silver Proof Coin (1983)
University of the Philippines Diamond Jubilee

Obverse: UP Oblation, "Pamantasan ng Pilipinas", "1908-1983", Quezon Hall (UP Diliman Administration Building), Gonzalez Hall (UP Diliman Main Library)
Reverse: Seal of the Republic of the Philippines, "100 Piso", "Republika ng Pilipinas"

Composition: 50% silver, 50% copper
Diameter: 38.00mm
Weight: 25grams
Mintage: 2000 pieces

Full text:

The Central Bank of the Philippines has commissioned the Royal Mint to strike a limited number of silver 100 piso proof coins, in commemoration of the diamond jubilee of the University of the Philippines.

The reverse depicts the seal of the Republic of the Philippines, adopted in 1946. Contained within the seal are elements from former Coats of Arms; the Lion from the Spanish period and the Eagle form the American era. The centre cartouche reflecting the sun with 8 rays, symbolizes independence and the 8 provinces which rose in revolt against Spain in 1896.


The obverse reflects the Oblation, a statue of a young man in a symbolic gesture of sacrificial offering for country and humanity. Created in 1934 by the famous Filipino sculptor, Guillermo E. Tolentino, it now stands in front of the Administration building of the University of the Philippines.

Each coin contains 50% silver and 50% copper, weighs 25 grams and measures 38.00mm in diameter. A maximum of only 2000 will be issued for worldwide distribution, of which 750 are included in the 1983 Philippines proof coin collection.

It is advisable to avoid handling proof coins as fingerprints or marks will spoil them.

Banknote and Coin Production Statistics (2006)

Banknotes

The Banknotes & Securities Printing Department of the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas is responsible for the printing of banknotes. Shown below is its production for the ten years period.

Year - Production(in millions)
1995 - 735.05
1996 - 594.93
1997 - 619.77
1998 - 735.50
1999 - 1368.04
2000 - 849.00
2001 - 802.55
2002 - 865.62
2003 - 775.58
2004 - 942.03
2005 - 987.00
2006 - 801.50

Total value of banknotes issued in 2006 was worth PhP 448.9 billion in 2.068.55 million pieces of banknotes.

Coins

In 2006, the BSP Mint produced 1.140 billion circulation coins. Total value of coins in circulation for that year was worth PhP 13 billion in 12,131.88 million pieces of coins.

Currency Retirement

A total of P25.47 billion (463.28 million pieces)processed/verified cancelled unfit notes were retired through the Security Engineer Machine (SEM)Disintegrator in 2006. Meanwhile, a total of P66.61 billion (110.05 million pieces) were retired on-line, higher by 84.15 percent than its level during the previous year.

Security Fibers - Security Feature

There are two kinds of security fibers. The first one is the visible security fibers. These are easily seen in current Philippine banknotes as the blue and red fibers that are randomly spread throughout the front and back of the paper. The other kind is the invisible security fiber. These glow a fluorescent yellow under ultraviolet light.

Security fibers are another form of security feature in Philippine money that guard against counterfeiting. Genuine security fibers in Philippine banknotes can be easily plucked out (yes, try it!) with the aid of a needle. Counterfeit money usually only prints the fibers on paper, thus , they cannot be plucked out.