10 Pesos

Philippine provincial emergency notes issued during the Japanese occupation are among the most historically compressed objects in 20th-century numismatics. When Manila fell in early 1942, the Commonwealth government — and many provincial governments operating in guerrilla-controlled territory — began issuing their own currency to sustain local economies and deny the occupying forces monetary control. Palawan, relatively isolated in the western Philippines, was among the provinces that maintained enough administrative coherence to produce its own series.

The embossed seal was the primary authentication device, a low-tech but difficult-to-replicate security measure given wartime printing constraints. Counterfeiting of provincial guerrilla currency was a known Japanese tactic.