old money is old

[afuna_archive]

While renovating my grandfather's old room, we found an envelope full of old paper money. It's weird to see just how much things have changed. I'll see if I can get a good image of them, and I'll try to get the modern equivalent as well ;)

There are bills from the time of four different presidents: Ramon Magsaysay, Carlo P. Garcia, Diosdado Macapagal, and Ferdinand Marcos. The weird thing is that the design reminds me more of US dollar bills than the modern incarnations. The text is even in English instead of in Filipino.

I wonder when the currency was redesigned? Also, anyone with a better grasp of history able to tell me how old these bills probably are (based on the presidents who signed them)?

Update:
Looking at the bills individually now, and I'm pretty sure that the redesign was done in Marcos' time. The money signed by all the other presidents is in the old style, and looks more like the dollar. All the bills with Marcos' name on them have had a facelift, and they are much closer to the modern version.

The old-style bills have this line running across the bottom: "This note is legal tender in the Philippines for all debts, public and private" (emphasis mine). Sound familiar to anyone? The Marcos bills have the same text translated into Filipino.

They all look like play money.

This is seriously, seriously cool.

Update 2:
I just found a 10-peso bill with Marcos' signature, which makes sense because he couldn't have started redesigning the money until he started his term, so he'd have needed to go with the old-style bills first.

I've also found a one-peso bill. Hahaha!

Front, compared to the modern $1 bill:



Back view:


The front and back of a PHP100 bill, so you can see how different the layout of the modern peso is:

Comments

[ciaran-h.livejournal.com]

Who needs a grasp on history when you can have a grasp on Wikipedia? :P

Carlos Polistico Garcia (not Carlo :P) was president from 1957-1961. Diosdado Pangan Macapagal was straight after, from 1961-1965. Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralín Marcos was from 1966-1986.
So, yes, the earliest of those is at least 46 years old, and possibly up to 50. The latest is at least 21 years old, and possibly up to 41. :D

[ciaran-h.livejournal.com]

And since you went and changed your post by adding Ramon Magsaysay, now I need to say he served from 1953-1957. ;p

[afuna]

*groans* One of these days, I'll learn not to ask the obvious questions. Hm With the addition of Ramon Magsaysay then, the earliest is at least 50, and the oldest possibly up to 54? ;)

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

I do believe we have a numismatist in the making here. :D Pretty fascinating stuff, isn't it? ^__^ One of my exes was heavily into coin/currency collecting and sort of got me into it a bit.

Anyway, can't wait to see the pics of these bills! :D

[afuna]

Just added a couple, but only have my phone camera, so it's all a bit fuzzy! I'm waiting for my older brother to get home, as he has the better equipment *grin*

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

LOL, I got comment bunnehed there, and didn't see your response until after I posted the other comment. XD

Neat! Can't wait! :D Although the pics you posted here looked quite good and clear to me, especially given that you had taken them with a camera phone. ^___^

[afuna]

Wasn't able to scan them in before I left because I was so busy :(

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

Errr, never mind, you just posted a few of them already, but the images had simply failed to load on my end the first time around for some reason. ^^;;

Really neat! :D And the similarity between the current U.S. dollar and the old-style one peso Filipino bill is striking, indeed! 0_0

Thanks so much for sharing these! :D If you have any more, I can't wait to see them. ^___^

[iruka11.livejournal.com]

haha! halatang gaya-gaya tayo noon sa amerika...

(picturan mo na lahat ng bills mo dyan :P kung may "luma" kang ten (ung isang ulo) masaya din XD)

[afuna]

Haha! But did we have a choice though? :)

^^

[yen420.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's neat. The only old money I still have is the one peso coin. You know, the large round one? And also 5 peso coin ^^ Yours is older, bills!!! I never knew they had one peso bills before. Wonder what coins looked like back then. Hmm...

Re: ^^

[afuna]

Hm, not sure. Am tempted to Google, but also too lazy to ;)

I know the old one peso coin! I don't remember the old 5-peso coin, though. Wasn't it always the same as what we have now?

[cindyg.livejournal.com]

I remember the one-peso bills. You could feel really rich, back in the day, with a wad of those in your wallet - especially during Christmas, when I was a child!

I also remember the two-peso bills, and the five-peso bills, not to mention the ten-peso bills. Wah! I was so upset when they changed things into coins...even though coins wear better than bills.

::squish::

[afuna]

Di ko naabutan talaga ang one-peso bill *grin* It feels to see a one-peso bill, though, now that the purchasing power of the peso has gone way waay down.

Two-peso bill... that was blue, right? And coins just feel so much cheaper than bills, even though I suspect they're more expensive to make.

[ciaran-h.livejournal.com]

What do the government pay the minters in?

(random question, just popped into my head, sorry)

[afuna]

Pay... the minters? I'm afraid my brain is not parsing the question.

[ciaran-h.livejournal.com]

Well, if something is more expensive than something else to make, then that implies that money is involved. If the minters mint the currency for the government to distribute, how do the minters get paid? Do they just keep some of the money that they mint?

[afuna]

Oh, oh! :) I think it's the government that does the actual minting, does it?

[atomic-clay.livejournal.com]

Cool!

My mom used to show me an old two peso bill (the blue one, you mentioned) with Rizal on it. :)

I think that existed around the late 80s? I could be wrong. :) The old money I remember are really the coins - the hexagon (or was it octagon?) 2 peso coin with the carabao, the 1 peso coin with the coconut tree, and the 25 centavo coin with the butterfly. :p

These might be worth a lot for collectors. :)

[afuna]

I think, hm. Yeah, probably. Definitely around the time we were very small kids. The 2-peso coin was an octagon I think. I miss those :) The 25-centavo coin looks about the same now, right, in terms of size? Oh wait or did it use to be bigger? You forgot the 50-centavo coin with a Philippine eagle!

[atomic-clay.livejournal.com]

Haha! Yup, they only replaced the butterfly (the mariposa, right?) with the BSP seal.

50-centavo coin! I USED TO LOVE THAT COIN! Because the eagle was cool. Hehe.

[afuna]

Kaya pala nag-Ateneo ka! :P

[atomic-clay.livejournal.com]

Haha hindi naman! I thought it was just cooler than the butterfly and the carabao... and the TREE. Haha.

[afuna]

Hahaha. Though technically a palm tree is not really a tree :D

[atomic-clay.livejournal.com]

It was a coconut tree! Wasn't it? :-/

[afuna]

It was! It even had some coconuts. I'm just not sure whether a coconut true is really a tree, despite its name (just like the coconutt nut is not a nut hehehe)

[atomic-clay.livejournal.com]

Touche. :p