1 Peso Mabini, Philippines, Red seal, Orange underprint

Issued under the Commonwealth of the Philippines — the transitional government established by the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934, which set a ten-year path to full independence — this series was a deliberate assertion of Filipino institutional identity while the islands remained under American administration. The Treasury of the Philippines, rather than any colonial authority, is named as issuer. That distinction mattered politically, even if the BEP in Washington was doing the actual printing.

The red seal variant sits within a series that also appeared with blue and yellow seals, each designating different issuing or payment conditions. Notes from this series still in circulation were largely rendered worthless during the Japanese occupation, when the Philippine peso was displaced by the occupation peso after 1942.