100 Piso Emilio Aguinaldo

Emilio Aguinaldo's presence on Philippine coinage carries a specific political charge: he proclaimed Philippine independence on June 12, 1898 at his own home in Cavite, making him the first president of the short-lived First Philippine Republic — a government the United States refused to recognize before crushing it in the Philippine-American War. The conflict that followed, often obscured by its proximity to the Spanish-American War, killed an estimated 200,000 to 600,000 Filipino civilians.

Nordic gold, the aluminum-bronze alloy developed by the Nordic Mint consortium in the 1990s, was chosen here primarily for its resistance to counterfeiting and its distinctive color stability under circulation wear.