Banknotes of the Philippine peso
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 and the largest is ₱1000. The front side of each banknote features prominent people along with buildings, and events in the country's history while the reverse side depicts landmarks and animals. The dimensions of banknotes issued since the US-Philippine administration, 16 x 6.6 cm, has remained the same on all subsequent Philippine peso banknotes (except pre-1958 centavo  notes), and was introduced during William Howard Taft's tenure as governor-general of the Philippines. In view of its highly successful run, President Taft then appointed a committee that reported favorably on the advantages and savings from changing the size of United States banknotes to Philippine-size. Since 1928 the sizes of the United States Federal Reserve Notes and Philippine banknotes have therefore been nearly identical. History. On May 1, 1852, the first commercial bank of the Philippines, El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II issued the following denominations initially 10, 25, 50 and 200 pesos fuertes (strong pesos ). They were used until 1896. First Philippine Republic. The revolutionary republic of Emilio Aguinaldo ordered the issuance of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100-peso banknotes which were signed by Messrs. Pedro A. Paterno, Telesforo Chuidan and Mariano Limjap to avoid counterfeiting. However, only the 1 and 5-peso banknotes have been printed and circulated to some areas by the end of the short-lived First Republic. American Period. By 1903, the American colonial Insular Government had issued Silver Certificates in denominations of 2, 5 and 10 pesos, backed by silver pesos or U.S. gold dollars at a fixed  rate of 2 pesos/$. In 1905 higher denominations of 20, 50, 100 and 500 pesos were added. In 1908, the El Banco Español Filipino was allowed to print banknotes in the following denominations with text in Spanish: Cinco (5), Diez (10), Veinte (20), Cincuenta (50), Cien (100) and Dos Cientos (200) Pesos. In 1912, the bank was renamed Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and henceforth issued the same banknotes in English. In 1918, the Silver Certificates were replaced by the Treasury Certificates issued with government-backing of bonds issued by the United States Government in 1, 2, 5, 10 , 20, 50, 100 and 500 Pesos. In 1916, the Philippine National Bank (PNB) was created to administer the state-holding shares and print banknotes without any quota from the Philippine Assembly. They printed banknotes in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pesos. During World War I, the PNB issued emergency notes printed on cardboard paper in the following denominations: 10, 20, 50 centavos and 1 peso. Also overprinted BPI Notes in Five, Ten and Twenty Pesos due to the lack of currency. The Commonwealth of the Philippines issued Treasury Certificates with the seal of the new  government but still circulated the BPI and PNB banknotes. Banknotes issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Section::::"VICTORY-CBP" banknotes. The banknotes first issued by today's Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (formerly the "Central Bank of the Philippines") were the VICTORY-CBP Overprints in 1949, which were merely overprints of older American-era banknotes. The first official banknote series to be printed were the English Series in 1951. English Series. The English Series were Philippine banknotes that circulated from 1949 to 1969. It was the only banknote series of the Philippine peso to use English. Pilipino Series. The Pilipino Series  banknotes is the name used to refer to Philippine banknotes issued by the Central Bank of the Philippines from 1969 to 1977, during the term of President Ferdinand Marcos. This series represented a radical change from the English series by undergoing Filipinization and a design change. It was succeeded by the Ang Bagong Lipunan Series of banknotes, to which it shared a similar design. The lowest denomination of the series is 1-piso and the highest is 100-piso. Section::::"Ang Bagong Lipunan" Series. The Ang Bagong Lipunan Series (literally, ”The New Society Series") is the name used to refer to  Philippine banknotes issued by the Central Bank of the Philippines from 1973 to 1985. It was succeeded by the New Design Series of banknotes. The lowest denomination of the series is 2-piso and the highest is 100-piso. After the declaration of Proclamation № 1081 by President Ferdinand Marcos on September 23, 1972, the Central Bank was to demonetize the English Series banknotes in 1974, pursuant to Presidential Decree 378. All the unissued Pilipino Series banknotes (except the one peso banknote) were sent back to the De La Rue plant in London for overprinting the watermark area with the  words "ANG BAGONG LIPUNAN" and oval geometric safety design. The one peso bill was replaced with the two peso bill, which features the same elements of the demonetized Pilipino series one peso bill. On September 7, 1978, the Security Printing Plant in Quezon City was inaugurated to produce the banknotes. The banknotes were still legal tender even after the introduction of the New Design Series banknotes, however it is seldom used after the EDSA Revolution. The banknotes were eventually demonetized on February 2, 1996 (but can still be exchange with legal tender currency to the Central Bank until February 1 , 1996) after clamors that the banknotes can be used to buy votes for the 1992 Presidential Elections. New Design/BSP Series. By 1983, the committee was deciding on the issuance of new banknotes to replace the "Ang Bagong Lipunan Series" by issuing seven new banknotes consisting in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1000-pesos. On June 12, 1985, the Central Bank issued the "New Design Series" starting with a new 5-peso banknote with the face of Emilio Aguinaldo. The following months, a new 10-peso banknote with the face of Apolinario Mabini. On March 3 , 1986, a new 20-peso banknote appeared. After the 1986 People Power Revolution and the new 1987 Constitution was promulgated, the Central Bank issued a new 50, 100- and for the second time a new 500-peso banknote with the face of Benigno Aquino Jr. In 1991, the Central Bank issued for the first time a new 1000-peso banknote, containing the portraits of José Abad Santos, Josefa Llanes Escoda and Vicente Lim. After the passage of the New Central Bank Act of 1993 when the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) was reestablished as the central monetary authority, this series  was renamed the "BSP Series" and featured the new seal of the BSP. In 1998, the 100,000-peso Centennial banknote, measuring 8.5"x14", accredited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest legal tender note. It was issued in very limited quantity during the celebration of the Centennial of Philippine Independence. In the same year, the practice in banknotes since the Commonwealth era of reproducing the signature of the President of the Philippines over the legend "President of the Philippines" was abandoned in favor of explicitly stating the president's name. In 2001, the BSP upgraded the  security features (visible fibers, value panel, security thread and watermark) of 1000, 500, and 100-peso banknotes with additional security features like a second glossy security thread, iridescent strip, fluorescent printing, optically variable ink, and microprints. In 2002, the Bangko Sentral issued a new 200-peso banknote with the same aforementioned security features and with the face of former President Diosdado Macapagal. His daughter, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is at the back of the 200-peso banknote which showed her being sworn into office at the EDSA Shrine. She is the first president whose image has been included in a banknote  while in office since emergency currency was issued by various provincial currency boards during World War II. On July 8, 2009, the BSP announced that it would recall all bank notes made of abaca and cotton soon and replace it with an all-polymer series. This plan has been abandoned, however, when the "New Generation Currency" series was launched in 2010 with all banknotes still made of abaca and cotton. These banknotes were legal tender alongside the "New Generation Currency" series until the end of 2015, when the "New Generation Currency" series became a single circulating set. The "New Design /BSP series" ceased to be legal tender on January 1, 2016, and were demonetized on December 29, 2017. Signature pairs of the President of the Philippines and Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas appearing on the banknotes: New Generation Currency Series (current). In 2009, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas announced that it will launch a massive redesign for its banknotes and coins to further enhance security features and to improve durability. The BSP released the new design of the banknotes on December 16, 2010, along with an initial batch. The members of the numismatic committee included Bangko Sentral Deputy  Governor Diwa Guinigundo and Dr. Ambeth Ocampo, chairman of the National Historical Institute. Designed by Studio 5 Designs and Design Systemat, the new banknotes' designs feature famous Filipinos and iconic natural wonders. Former President Corazon Aquino was added to the 500-peso bill together with Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. The word "Pilipino" is rendered in the reverse in Baybayin (). The font used for lettering in the banknotes is Myriad, while the numerals are set in the Twentieth Century font. The New Generation Currency series is the only circulating set of notes after December 30, 2017. In 2017, the BSP updated  the design of the NGC series banknotes with the following changes: In 2020, the Enhanced NGC series all banknotes except for the ₱20 were updated with the following changes: Signature pairs of the President of the Philippines and Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas appearing on the banknotes: Errors. Several errors have been discovered on banknotes of the New Generation series and have become the subject of ridicule on social networking sites. Among these are the exclusion of Batanes from the Philippine map on the reverse of all denominations, the mislocation of the Puerto Princesa Subterranean Underground River  on the reverse of the 500-peso bill and the Tubbataha Reef on the 1000-peso bill, and the incorrect coloring on the beak and feathers of the blue-naped parrot on the 500-peso bill. The scientific names of the animals featured on the reverse sides of all banknotes were incorrectly rendered as well. According to Design Systemat, the designers of the new bills, that drafts prepared by the company of the new 500-peso bill shows a red beak of the blue-naped parrot. This color was changed by the printers to account for practical printing concerns. The  designers further explains that printing banknotes is not like printing brochures. Due to the intaglio printing and limited printing capability of banknote printers, it can only produce a limited full color reproduction. The alleged mislocation of the Tubbataha Reef on the one thousand peso note was due to a security feature, a smaller version of the featured species on the bills' reverse (which is also featured on all banknote denominations) was located on top of the exact location of the Tubbataha Reef on the map. Giving the option of either moving the key security feature on the standard position or  locating the Tubbataha marker correctly, the bills' French printers, Oberthur Technologies, decided to move the reef marker slightly south on the Philippine map. Commemorative banknotes. Commemorative banknotes have been issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to memorialize events of historic significance to the Philippines. Most commonly they were issued by adding a commemorative overprint on the watermark area of a circulating denomination. Less common are especially-designed non-circulating commemorative banknotes sold to collectors at a premium over face value. Higher value commemorative banknotes. 2,000 piso. The Central Bank of the Philippines (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) issued only 300,000  pieces of this 216 mm x 133 mm 2,000 Philippine peso centennial commemorative legal tender banknote. Another version, with the same design but measured at 160 x 66 mm, was also planned to be issued as legal tender in 2001, but due to the ouster of President Joseph Estrada as the result of the Second EDSA revolution (EDSA People Power II), the notes were stored in the vaults of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. As of 2010, the bank was considering destroying the bulk of the unissued notes (known as the "New Millennium" or "Erap" notes), saving only 50,000 of  the five million pieces to be demonetized for "historical, educational, numismatic, or other purposes". However it was not until 2012 that the bank began selling this numismatic product in a folder that clearly stipulates that the notes are not legal tender. The obverse side features President Joseph Estrada taking his oath of office on June 30, 1998, in the historic Barasoain Church, the seat of the first democratic republic in Asia shown in the background as well as the scroll of the Malolos Constitution and the seal of the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas). The reverse side depicts the re -enactment of the declaration of Philippine Independence at the Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1998, by President Fidel V. Ramos and also features the Philippine Centennial Commission logo. The security features of the note include a 3-dimensional cylinder mold-made portrait watermark of the two presidents and the years 1898–1998, iridescent band, color-shift windowed security thread, latent image and perfect see-through register. 100,000 piso. The 100,000-peso centennial note, measuring 356 x 216 mm, was accredited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest legal tender note in terms of  size. 1,000 pieces were issued during the celebration of the centennial of Philippine independence in 1998. It has since been surpassed by the somewhat larger 600 Malaysian ringgit banknote. 5,000 piso. On January 18, 2021, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, in cooperation with the Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines launches the 5,000-Piso Commemorative Non-Circulating Banknote, in honor of heroism of Lapulapu. On its obverse, the banknote depicts a young Lapulapu, an image of the Battle of Mactan, the QCP logo, and the Karakoa, the large outrigger warships used by native Filipinos, while on its reverse shows the Philippine eagle , or the Manaol, which symbolizes clear vision, freedom, and strength; and which embodies the ancient Visayan belief that all living creatures originated from an eagle, also featured are the tree of a coconut, which was food the people of Samar provided to Ferdinand Magellan and his crew; and Mount Apo, which is located in Mindanao, where the circumnavigators finally found directional clues to their intended destination of Maluku or the Spice Island.