Talk about saying a mouthfull in a short sentence! WOW! If you are looking for a first rate challenge, or an historical adventure of MEGA PORPORTIONS, not to mention what will surely someday turn out to be a very smart investment, you really need to take a good look at Philippine wartime guerrilla currency.

     With the outbreak of WWII, and their status as a U.S. Commonwealth Nation, the Philippine Islands were a prime target for the Empire of Japan. This brought about vast increases in cash expenditures by both the Philippine Government and military. Knowing that a Japanese attack was imminent, all supplies and stockpiles of both U.S. and Philippine currency (backed by the U.S. Treasury) had to be burned so as not to fall into Japanese hands and ultimately be used against America in their war effort. Additionally, for the same reasons, over fifteen million Pesos in silver coins were secretly dumped into Caballo Bay, south of Corregidore in early 1942. With this in mind, the Philippine Treasury, backed by guarantees of the U.S. Government, set upon the task of establishing the framework and rules for a wartime script that could both sustain commerce, and easily be rendered worthless if captured by any occupying force. This was no easy task. The Commonwealth of the Philippine consists of over 7000 islands with a land area of over 115,000 sq/mi. There was an extremely diverse population of about 60 million people with many different cultures living in about fifty separate provinces. Emergency currency boards had to be established so that local currency could be produced as needs arose. These needs included payment of municiple workers, Philippine guerrilla soldiers fighting Japanese occupation, teachers, local and provincial officials, plus the currency needs for sustaining commerce. Despite a declaration by the exiled Philippine President, that under penalty of prosecution, all emergency currency must be accepted as legal tender for trade throughout the entire nation, most currencys only circulated in their issuing or adjacent provinces.

     Shortly after their invasion and occupation of the Philippine Islands, the Japanese Government issued occupation currency in denominations of one centavo through one thousand pesos. They decreed that this currency and official pre-occupation Philippine notes were the only "Legal Tender Currencys" that could be used. They also decreed that all emergency or guerrilla notes were illegal and issued severe penalties for anyone caught with them. They tried everything from mass destruction of confiscated notes, to immediate execution of persons caught with guerrilla notes in their possession. Out of frustration, they even attempted several "Buy Back" programs in the attempt to redeem and remove these "illegal" circulating notes. All of these programs were made in an attempt to further confidence in their own occupation currency. None of these programs were successful, and soon they just quit trying for fear of further damaging of the allready fragile Philippine economy. Japanese/Philippine occupation currency never achieved international recognition and through inflation eventually became worthless.

     From 1941 until the ultimate liberation of the Philippine Islands by Allied Troops in 1945, emergency wartime notes were secretly and clandestinely issued as needed. Their values ranged from as little as .01c to $20 Pesos. Some provinces issued notes as large as $500 Pesos. In all, more than 1000 different varieties were issued. Remarkably, with all of these different issues, there were few reported incidents of counterfeiting. With the exception of two varieties that were widely produced, most counterfeit notes are rare and actively sought after by advanced collectors. In some cases because of shortages of paper stocks, notes were issued on the reverse of municiple forms, money order stocks, and in some cases even paper bag stocks!  So many were destroyed by the Japanese or just used until they fell apart, that many are quite rare! All notes that were legally issued by established currency boards were backed by the promises of both the Philippine Government and the U.S. Treasury, of redemption after the Japanese defeat. All legally redeemed notes were recorded and subsequently burned. Most records of these redemptions were lost or destroyed over the post war years, and the actual quantities and denominations of those notes redeemed and burned no longer exist. Some issues have completely disappeared. In some cases only a few hundred notes were issued, and in others as many as millions. However, after 65 years and, who knows how many attempts to eradicate these notes, it doesn't matter how many were printed. The question is, "How many Survived"? In many cases "few", and in some cases "none". Others are quite common. One thing is for sure; they are all very collectible. In just the last year, there has been a tremendous surge in collector interest and many of these notes have seen increases in value of 100 - 1000%!

     For the most part, Territorial U.S./Philippine coins, currency, and wartime emergency guerrilla currency, are only now being discovered by United States coin collectors. For more than 100 years, most American collectors had no idea that these items even existed. The entire Territorial Philippines series of numismatics, (1903-1945) is the most underrated, under-collected, and underpriced series in the history of American coin collecting. For U.S. coin collectors, you could almost call it "The Final Frontier".  SO, GET ON BOARD. . . .  YOU'LL LOVE THE RIDE!

     If you have found this review interesting or in any way informative, I would greatly appreciate your taking a few moments to check the ( YES ) box at the bottom of this page. All information sources are available upon request. mintex03