1921 Philippine Money (Family Collection) Rediscovered Because of the Floods.

Obverse:  5 Pesos circa 1921 (American regime) issued by the Philippine National Bank.

Reverse:  literally wiped-out.  In close up, some characters are still recognizable, though.

Is there anything good that came out of the recently atrocious event which can only be depicted by grotesque scenes of waist-deep floods brought about by the "enhanced" southwest monsoon that hit Metro Manila?  Could you think of one?  Was there any silver lining?  For me, there's one.  My mom "rediscovered" these really old Philippine paper bills from my grandfather's collection!  Yey!

When the floods have started seeping into the house of my mom in San Juan City, she cleared the storage room of boxes and other objects for quite some time now.  The room is located on the first floor of her house.  Fortunately, she was able to save the items in the storage room before the water came into the house.   Now that everything has gotten back to "normal", she put the boxes and several objects that belonged to our family for several generations back to the storage room.  Of course, she did some sorting and found a worn-out billfold containing some old Philippine paper money.  She believed that these are part of the collection of my grandfather that she thought were destroyed in the 2009 Ondoy (Ketsana) floods.  Fortunately, this beaten billfold survived along with the old Philippine currency notes.

The oldest in the batch is the 1921 five-Peso note (pictures above).  This 91-year old paper money is in really bad shape.  The obverse shows a picture of an American.  I cannot read the name on top of the picture.  It is either "Mc Kelly" or "Mc Kelky".  (Maybe someone who is reading this might help me in deciphering the name.)  He must be an important American in Philippine history to be in the currency note.

The note is issued by the Philippine National Bank (PNB).  The PNB was established in 1916.  Since the Philippines did not have a Central Bank until 1949, PNB has been considered as the de facto Central Bank.  Thus, PNB is allowed by the American government to issue notes.  (The Philippines is under the American rule from 1898 to 1935.)

The reverse of the note is somehow obliterated.  The only distinct words I can see are "FIVE" and what seem to follow is "PESOS" on the upper right hand corner, and "NOTE" somewhere in the middle on the right.

The other paper money are from different political eras.  They were all issued by the Central Bank of the Philippines under Presidents Ramon Magsaysay, Carlos P. Garcia, Diosdado Macapagal, and Ferdinand Marcos.

They are wonderful specimens and part of our history.  They would all remain hidden if not because of the recent floods.  So, even in bad situations some good things could still come out, I suppose...

Obverse:  1 Peso from the time of President Marcos featuring Jose Rizal.

Reverse:  1 Peso depicting National Flag Day (Proclamation of Independence)

Obverse:  5 Pesos from the time of President Diosdado Macapagal featuring Marcelo del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena.  Looks like an American dollar, don't you think?

Reverse:  5 Pesos depicting the La Solidaridad in yellow.

Obverse:  20 Pesos also from the time of President Diosdado Macapagal featuring  Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto.  Looks similar to an American currency.

Reverse:  20 Pesos depicting the Kartilya of the Katipunan and the Balintawak Monument in what seem to be orange (or red?). 

Obverse:  10 Pesos from the time of President Carlos P. Garcia featuring the 3 martyrs - GOMBURZA - Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora. 

Reverse:  10 Pesos depicting the Philippine flag and the Urdaneta and Legaspi Monument.  Now, where is this monument located?

Obverse:  2 Pesos from the time of President Ramon Magsaysay (I suppose). featuring Jose Rizal.

Reverse:  2 Pesos depicting the landing of the explorer Magellan to the Philippines in 1521.

Postscript:  If you are interested about old paper money and coins, you might want to check out my blog post about my 108-year old Philippine 1-Peso Silver Coin.  Just click on the link below:

What's the Oldest Thing You Have?