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5 Centavos

Issuer Philippines Commonwealth Bureau of Health - Culion Leper Colony (Palawan)
Year 1942
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Currency Culion Leper Colony Peso (1913-1945)
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Reverse description Plain pale paper carrying two blocks of typewritten text. The upper inscription states authority of issue from the President of the Philippines, transmitted on 2/9/42 through the Commanding General, USAFFE, Iloilo. Below, a partially legible violet rubber stamp impression reads 'The Government of the Philippine Islands / Department of Public Instruction / Bureau of Health' with an indistinct countersignature.
Reverse lettering Issued by Authority of the
PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES
Transmitted 2/9/42 through the
Commanding General, USAFFE, Iloilo
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
Department of Public Instruction
Bureau of Health
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Comments

Culion's leper colony scrip occupies a genuinely strange corner of monetary history. The Philippine Commonwealth's Bureau of Health maintained a parallel currency system at Culion specifically to prevent colony residents from introducing notes into general circulation — a public health quarantine measure expressed through economics. By 1942, the Japanese occupation had disrupted supply lines to the island, and this late Commonwealth issue was circulating alongside, and in competition with, Japanese Military Administration pesos flooding the archipelago.

Earlier Culion issues date back to 1913. The series ran across several decades with surprisingly consistent administrative intent, even as the political authority overhead changed hands repeatedly.

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