20 Pesos

The Province of Cagayan issued this note under Japanese occupation, when provincial and local governments across the Philippine Commonwealth were compelled to produce emergency currency to keep basic commerce functioning. These provincial guerrilla and civil emergency issues are frequently conflated in collections, but Cagayan's series was a civil administration issue, not a guerrilla note — an important distinction that affects both provenance and survival rates.

Cagayan province sits at the northern tip of Luzon, geographically isolated enough that its wartime currency circulated within a fairly contained area. Notes from this series tend to show heavy use wear, consistent with genuine circulation rather than hoarding.