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.

1 Peso Victory Note

The following information about the Victory notes came from the site http://www.raleighcoinclub.org/. This is a part of Raleigh Coin Club Newsletter(September 2003) as I think this would be helpful in this topic.

In October of 1944, MacArthur (along with the US Army and Navy) did return to the Philippines. By February of 1945, the islands were secured and the Philippine Islands were once again under American sovereignty. Carried along with the American forces was a new issue of Treasury Certificates to reestablish the US-Philippine monetary system on the islands.

These notes, while maintaining the designs of the pre-WWII issues, were distinguished from previous notes by the overprinting of “VICTORY” on the back of each note. “Victory Notes,” as they have come to be called, were issued in denominations of one, two, five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred and five hundred pesos.

Like the older issues of Treasury Certificates, this one also got smaller text found in the upper border that applies to all victory notes which says: BY AUTHORITY OF AN ACT OF THE PHILIPPINE LEGISLATURE, APPROVED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 13, 1922.

This 1 Peso note bears the portrait of Apolinario Mabini, A Filipino Hero who is often referred to as "the Sublime Paralytic", and as "the Brains of the Revolution".To his envious enemies, he is referred to as the "Dark Chamber of the President" (from Wikipedia.org). This was note was signed by President Sergio Osmeña was the second President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during that time.

The next one peso is another type of victory with an additional overprint at the back.

Reference: "Philippine emergency and guerrilla currency of World War II" by Shafer Neil. Seen in the appendix of the brief summary of Philippine paper money.

Independence was granted to the Philippines on July 4, 1946 but the new nation was not yet ready to supply its population with a centralized new currency. Treasury Certificates of U.S. manufacture continued to be issued until the establishment of the Central Bank of the Philippine on June 15, 1948. The Bank overprinted some VICTORY series notes at first as you can see in this 1 peso.

They added CENTRAL BANK OF THE PHILIPPINES in red ink at the back as the beginning of a new change in Philippine notes.

During the next year(1949), after the print in Victory series, the Bank issued notes under its own name and bearing that date.

This note are often referred as the "English Series" wherein the pictures of these banknotes are in my previous post under the same label. I hope that this post can be something you learn from and perhaps this can be appreciated by others as well.

Japanese-Philippine Money 1st Issue

Reference: "Philippine emergency and guerrilla currency of World War II" by Shafer Neil. Seen in the appendix of the brief summary of Philippine paper money.

Japanese-Philippine Issues During World War II- "Mickey Mouse Money"

The Japanese wasted no time in proclaiming the validity and acceptability of the first issue of their invasion currency. Following is the text of an official proclamation by the Japanese army which is self-explanatory:

PROCLAMATION Jan. 3, 1942

The Imperial Japanese Army in the occupied areas, will use the war notes(military pass-money) endorsed and issued by the imperial Japanese Government. All the people residing within the concerned areas should be aware of the following:

1. The war notes (Military pass-money) have been issued by the Imperial Japanese Government and said government takes full responsibility for their usage having the correct amount to back them up.

2. Those who hold the war notes will be able to use them in making payments of all kinds.

3. If any one attempts to interfere with the circulation of the war notes (such as rejection of payment, forgery, or spreading the untrue nature of news concerning the war notes of any kind) his act will be considered hostile and will be punished severely.

4. The war notes and existing currencies, and foreign currency will be prohibited from exportation and importation for a while.

5. Kinds and classes of the war notes will e as follows:

10 peso-note, 5 peso-note, and notes of 1 centavo, 5 centavo, 10 centavo, and 50 centavo.

This first Japanese invasion issue was of a general nature similar in many respects to other invasion issues prepared for conquered areas like Malaya, Burma and the Netherlands East Indies.

For this post, I will be showing those include in the first issue.

1 Centavo:

5 Centavos:

This five centavo is encased in plastic that's why you can see some sort of tape at the back, probably done by the previous owner to protect the note from dust.


10 Centavos:



50 Centavos:

The notes of 50centavos and higher all show the same plantation scene on the face side.




1 Peso:

A 1 Peso was also issued though it is not mentioned in the Proclamation.


5 Pesos:




10 Pesos:

These notes seems to be produced in such large quantities that they became cheap. Even the higher denomination such as 500 Pesos and 1000 Pesos can be bought lower that its face value. I've seen bundles upon bundles of such notes being offered especially around Manila, from the worn and almost destroyed type, up to the desirable and uncirculated condition.

Despite that these money were somewhat degraded nowadays, still for me, this became an important change during that period and as to oppose the Japanese occupation, guerilla money were created. My earlier posts discussed some of the guerilla money that were used in different provinces in the Philippines.