Around 2.4 million of these 90 year old Treasury Certificates were issued ( and over 12 million similar ones ). The Act of the Philippines Legislature was approved by the US President Calvin Coolidge and certified that 1 peso was " payable to the bearer on demand in silver or gold coin of the US of equivalent value. " It was signed by the Acting Treasurer Salv. Lagdameo, and the Governor General, Leonard Wood.








Leonard Wood was a doctor who served as Chief of Staff of the US Army, before becoming Governor General of the Philippines in 1921 ( after failing as a candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1920 ). He had a medical history – the neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing removed a brain tumour in 1910, which eventually recurred and killed Wood in 1927, aged 66. There is a Leonard Wood Road in Baguio.



During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines ( 1942 – 1945 ) , hard currency was confiscated and millions of Japanese Government notes ( " Mickey Mouse Money " to Filipinos ) were issued. After the overthrow of the Japanese, tons of them were burned.




Emergency circulating notes were also printed by the Philippines Commonwealth Government in exile – " guerrilla pesos ", using crude inks and materials. These were outlawed by the Japanese, who declared a monopoly on the issuance of money. Anyone found in possession of them was arrested or executed.

This note was issued in the Mountain Province – one of possibly 200,000 ( the Japanese destroyed records ).








After WW II and full independence in 1946, this note was issued in 1949, signed by 6th President Elpidio Quirino, and equivalent to US $ 100.










• Present day value of these banknotes ? Priceless – I won’t ever sell them !