Things you have to know about the new peso bills

Love it or hate it, the new Philippine peso banknotes are in circulation. They retain the same colors as the current bills (which will remain legal tender until 2012) but are brighter, like the euro banknotes, and contain added elements and security features.

Dubbed the New Generation series, the designs of the updated bills were unveiled late last year and were released on a limited capacity in December. This month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is starting the mass roll-out.

The redesign and the decision to include has been met with polarizing opinions but the banknotes' most important characteristics are for security purposes. Printed using the latest technology, the bills possess a lot of hard-to-forge features.

But because they’re new, most people aren’t aware these additions. This means that it’s easy for forgers to create and circulate fake bills without any suspicion from the public. To prevent that, the BSP is actively campaigning to promote awareness of these measures and educate everyone on how to identify fake bills.

Feeling the texture of the money is one way. BSP currency analysis manager Maja Gratia Malic says that some of the text on the bills are embossed, including “Republika ng Pilipinas” and the face value (e.g. “Dalawampung Piso” for P20). She says that poorly made counterfeits are “easily recognizable” because they're “smooth to the touch, compared to the rough feel of [the] new notes.”

The security thread between the front and back layers of the bills are made larger to be more conspicuous, from 1.4mm in the old series to 2mm in lower denominations and 4mm in higher denominations of the new series. A second almost invisible watermark is added—aside from the usual portrait image, a concealed watermark showing the bill's numerical value is now present as well.

An inscription of the word “Filipino” in the precolonial era baybayin script is placed and only legible when the bill is held up against a light. Otherwise, the script is represented by white markings on the obverse and dark markings on the reverse. And last, there's the red and blue security fibers embedded and scattered throughout the bill that are visible under UV light.
The P500 and P1,000 bills further incorporate the optically variable device mechanism in the form of reflective circular patches on the obverse.

Meanwhile, a feature exclusive to the P1,000 bill is the use of optically variable ink in printing the value at the front's lower right corner. This makes the digits appear as either blue or green, depending on the viewing angle.

By Ed Biado