Cory 500 bill nearing circulation

The long wait of collectors and followers of the late Cory Aquino is finally over as the government is nearing the issuance of the proposed five-hundred peso bill featuring the late president Corazon C. Aquino for circulation, a senior central bank official said.

The new legal tender secured approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Monetary Board, the agency’s policy-making body, and Malacañang before the end of the year as part of the intended goal of the BSP to redesign our currency.

The new notes are expected to be in circulation before the year ends but special trials and special issues would become available to collectors before that date.

The BSP decided to overhaul designs of all bank notes to keep up with technological advances and to stay one step ahead of counterfeiters, Guinigundo said.

Other new bank note designs may include Philippine attractions such as the Banaue Rice Terraces, and the Underground River in Palawan, he hinted.

Currently, the front of the yellow P500 bank note features the image of Mrs. Aquino’s husband former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.

The former senator’s assassination in 1983 triggered a series of protests that led to the EDSA 1 bloodless revolt that ousted then strongman Ferdinand Marcos from power in 1986.

Mrs. Aquino, a key figure in that revolt who sat as president until 1992, succumbed to colon cancer last August 1.

On Wednesday, BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. was quoted as saying that the agency is considering honoring Mrs. Aquino by having her image on the P500 bill.

“Yes, I have asked the numismatic committee to consider the proposal to put up the portrait of former President Aquino in the P500 bill in designing our new generation currency notes," he said in a report.

The committee, led by Guinigundo, is composed of other central bank officials and historian Ambeth Ocampo as representative of the National Historical Commission.

Former BSP Governor Jaime Laya is a consultant.

Once the redesigns are complete, they will go through the Monetary Board and then sent to Malacañang for final approval.

“The notes will go to print upon approval by the President," Guindigundo said, adding that no new print has been previously rejected by a president.

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4 students claim to have dug up old Japanese bills, gold coins

Four elementary students in Jaen, Nueva Ecija, a province located a hundred of kilometers up north of Manila reportedly dug a box containing several Japanese paper money and gold coins. Report says that the students were called by a school teacher when she found that the four students were playing their with finds. One of them claimed that among the notes and the coins were pieces of documents which were written in unknown characters and in red ink. "I tried to erase it, but the red ink won't go." one of them added.

The school teacher explained to the media that she did not see any gold coins among those she confiscated. "Those were included in the hoard were just play money," she explained.

Video courtesy of GMANews.tv

The students added that their teacher told them to throw away the box afterward. One of them said that they dug the box at the school yard while they were playing. When they opened the box, they thought that the coins and money inside were just play money since they don't recognize it. They used the coins as a substitute for pebbles used for playing a local outdoor game.

Meanwhile, the children said that their teacher left them only with the paper money, which they later showed to the media.

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Special Economic Report: 4 Rural Banks in Pampanga went on holiday 2 days before New Year

Sta. Rita Rural Bank went on Holiday

The public has not yet fully recovered from the bank closures earlier this month, another wave of another bank closures happened two days before the News Year begins. Just this December alone, 10 banks have been seized by the Philippine Deposit And Insurance Corporation (PDIC), 8 which are owned by the Legacy Group who is also the owner of the Legacy Plans that ceased operation in the middle of this month.

All of the rural bank branches that recently went on holiday are located in Pampanga. As the Global Financial Crisis unfolds in the coming year, many analyst foresee that the worst is yet to come to the banking and financial industry.

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The 1972 Marcelo H. Del Pilar 50 Centavos Trial Piece in Copper

The 1972 Marcelo H. De Pilar Trial Strike in Copper

During the introduction of the new coins and the second term of then president Ferdinand Marcos in 1966, several pattern coins were created by then prominent medal designer and a former member of the Philippine Numismatic & Antiquarian Society (PNAS), Jose Tupaz Jr. Among the known varieties by Jose Tupaz, Jr. were coins which featured the first couple heads, the former president, the pope & the former president, and the national hero Juan Luna, which surprisingly, was the only hero included in the project. The patterns were later refined and the official coin set was released in 1967, which replaced the old design, which was still adopted from the original design of Melchor Figueroa.

Some lead splashers of these patterns were also made, one of them is in the hand of a prominent dealer who made it as one of the display attraction in his shop. Though, not a single trial piece was reported to have existed when the mass productions were already started, there were clues however that the mint made trial pieces since during that same design transition, another major changes occurred.

By way of proclamation of Martial law (RA 1081) on the 21st of September 1972, Marcos implemented a vision for the new republic that would particularly unify the Filipinos for the coming changes in the future. He called this project “The New Society”, or Ang Bagong Lipunan, a model society that would uplift the lives of the Filipinos through unification. The campaign was massive that he vetoed that such slogan would be inserted and carried out though the daily lives of the Filipinos, including the monetary system itself.

Marcos already implemented the gearing of the society toward patriotism where Tagalog was adopted as the national language. The former seal of the Republic which bear its slogan in English was replaced by a new Tagalog version including the name of the Central Bank which was altered to Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas.

Recently, a final trial piece in copper of the 50 centavos that bears the portrait of Marcelo H. Del Pilar surfaced. This is the final die trial before the die was finally destroyed and discontinued. Amazingly, the piece survived without much deterioration because it was covered in glue when it was first found. The coin is dated 1972, the last date of the 50 centavos denomination before it was discontinued to be produced in 1975. Only after the end of the regime, that the 50-centavos denomination was again introduced at the time of President Corazon Aquino.

Whatever the reason why the “The New Society” or Ang Bagong Lipunan never continued the production of 50-centavos remains trivial and mysterious. Yet, during the time of the New Society that gold coin production was resurrected after more than a hundred years hibernation, which made it as one of the most exciting period of Philippine numismatic.

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