Cagayan Province Large Denomination (3rd Issue) Guerilla Money

Reference: "Philippine emergency and guerrilla currency of World War II" by Shafer Neil.

The following notes are the third printing of Cagayan's Series. According to the reference, this is the final issue and were several printings; size changed for some lower denominations, while color and plate changes took place with various higher denominations. No notes of this series are dated.

The following details are for large size denominations (1 Peso and higher) only and I’ll include the lower denominations soon as I've finished editing them.


General Characteristics:

Face: Rubber plate, flying eagle in center, two purple printed serial numbers, printed text, signatures and titles in black or green. Handwritten initial under each serial number. Text (in generally unreadable Gothic type) is as follows:

“THIS CERTIFIES THAT THERE HAS BEEN DEPOSITED IN THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK THE EQUIVALENCE OF (ONE PESO/ OTHER DENOMINATION) PAYABLE TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND AFTER THE WAR.”

Each note is titled: EMERGENCY CERTIFICATE.

Back: Plate print, Roman and Gothic text; Gothic as follows:

“ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES AND THE PROVINCIAL BOARD OF CAGAYAN. REFUSAL TO ACCEPT THIS NOTE IS PUNISHABLE BY LAW.”

Extra handwritten number underneath. Text in black or green.

Size: 157/67mm.

Paper: Plain light brown.

1 Peso (1st type):

Purple with black text face and back.

1 Peso (2nd type):

Green with black text face and back.





1 Peso (3rd type):

This one got a different back plate and a smaller size Gothic type. It is also slightly differ in color than the first type.

2 Pesos:

Olive green with larger or smaller Gothic text.




5 Pesos (1st type):

Tan with green text face and back.

5 Pesos ( 2nd type):

Got the same face design and the back is completely different showing Statue of Liberty, buildings, hills, plants.

20 Pesos (1st type):

Green with black text and the back shows Mt. Mayon(Known volcano in the Philippines) and native scenes.

20 Pesos (2nd type):

Green with black text and no design at the back, only text and border.

Supposedly there is a 10 Pesos reported according to the reference, although during that time, no specimens have been located in any collection. If there is during this time, then it could be hard to find and probably would cost a lot.

It seems that these type of notes that came from Luzon area are not commonly found, compared from the Vizayas and Mindanao area which can be found easier, but still this is not the basis of telling that they are rare or not. It will still depend upon other factors that leads to such category.

I"m very thankful that I was able to have these notes from Mr. Coolpit cause I really didn't think that I'll have these much earlier than I expected cause back then, I was reading the reference about these notes and now I'm actually keeping them as well. I want to preserve these pieces of history, hoping that others will appreciate them today and in the future.