Catalog
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| Issuer | Central Bank of the Philippines |
|---|---|
| Year | 1951 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 162 × 67 mm |
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| Obverse description | A front-facing portrait vignette of President Manuel A. Roxas occupies the left portion of the note, rendered in fine intaglio engraving. The bank seal appears at lower right, flanked by elaborate guilloche underprint patterns in the background. Denomination numerals and the issuing authority's name are printed in letterpress across the upper and lower registers. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The central vignette presents an engraved view of the former Central Bank of the Philippines headquarters building in Manila, set within a frame of fine guilloche lathe-work. The denomination appears in both numeral and text form in the surrounding registers. The overall composition is executed in a classical architectural engraving style typical of mid-twentieth-century De La Rue security printing. |
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| Comments |
The Central Bank of the Philippines was established only in 1949, replacing the Philippine Treasury and the pre-war currency board arrangement that had tied the peso directly to the U.S. dollar at a fixed rate. These early De La Rue issues were part of the first sovereign Philippine currency series — produced abroad because the Bangko Sentral had no domestic printing capacity yet. The 500 Peso denomination was the highest in the initial series, intended primarily for interbank settlement rather than retail circulation, which partly explains why surviving examples with any handling are relatively uncommon.
De La Rue's watermark on this series is a simple but clean execution, consistent with their standard security specification of the period.