1 Peso

One of dozens of guerrilla and provincial emergency currencies issued across the Philippine archipelago during the Japanese occupation, this Ilocos Norte peso was produced locally under wartime conditions after the Japanese military administration introduced its own occupation currency — the so-called "Mickey Mouse money" — which Filipinos widely distrusted and refused to use at par. Provincial treasuries across Luzon filled the gap with their own notes, backed by nothing more than local government authority and whatever printing equipment hadn't been destroyed or seized.

Ilocos Norte, in the far northwest of Luzon, remained a contested zone. Notes from this treasury were practical instruments of resistance-era commerce, not formal banking documents. Paper quality and printing consistency vary considerably across surviving examples, a direct consequence of wartime supply constraints rather than carelessness.