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20 Pesos
| Issuer | Commonwealth of the Philippines, Bureau of Health, Culion Leper Colony |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain light paper note of utilitarian typewritten format. The upper portion bears the text certifying the obligation of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Bureau of Health, Culion Leper Colony to pay the bearer, with the denomination TWENTY PESOS rendered in a decorative typeface flanked by ornamental colons. A blue underprint or handstamp is faintly visible across the central field, and the note is dated 1942 at both left and right margins with serial number 325 at lower left and right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | This Certifies That The COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES BUREAU OF HEALTH CULION LEPER COLONY Is Obligated to Pay the Bearer TWENTY PESOS In Legal Tender Currency |
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| Comments |
Culion Leper Colony currency occupies a genuinely strange corner of monetary history. The Philippine government had been issuing segregated scrip for the Culion colony since 1913, specifically to prevent coins and notes from leprosy wards re-entering general circulation — a public health measure enforced with considerable administrative seriousness. By 1942, the Japanese occupation had disrupted normal supply lines to the island, and this late Commonwealth series was pressed into continued use under conditions the Bureau of Health had never anticipated managing.
The S311 designation places this among the final Commonwealth-authorized issues before the occupation administration asserted control over the colony's internal economy. Whether these notes circulated meaningfully under Japanese occupation or simply persisted by default is not well documented.