1 Peso

Masbate was one of several Philippine provinces that issued its own emergency currency following the Japanese occupation of Manila in early 1942. Cut off from the Commonwealth government's central banking apparatus, local administrations printed their own guerrilla pesos to sustain commerce and pay civil servants — this note is part of that improvised wartime monetary infrastructure.

Provincial emergency notes from the Philippine islands vary enormously in printing quality and surviving quantities. Masbate's issues are among the less commonly encountered, reflecting both the island's small population and the destruction that accompanied Japanese consolidation of the Visayas in 1942–43.