Catalog
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| Issuer | Philippine National Bank, Iloilo City |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S306 |
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| Reverse description | Plain light blue guilloche ground with a simple ornamental border in olive-green. The large denomination numeral 2 appears in each corner. The upper centre carries the issuer inscription PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK / Iloilo City, Philippines, Dec. 30, 1941, below which TWO PESOS is repeated in smaller text at left and right flanking a central panel with TWO PESOS in bold block lettering. The year 1941 is printed below the central panel, and EMERGENCY CIRCULATING NOTE runs along the lower margin. |
| Reverse lettering | PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK Iloilo City, Philippines, Dec. 30, 1941 Two Pesos TWO PESOS Two Pesos 1941 EMERGENCY CIRCULATING NOTE |
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| Comments |
The Philippine National Bank's regional emergency notes issued from Iloilo City in 1941 represent one of the more administratively fragmented episodes in Philippine currency history. As Japanese forces advanced through the archipelago following December 1941, provincial branches were authorized to issue their own emergency currency rather than allow cash reserves to fall into enemy hands — a decision made at the branch level, not Manila.
The Iloilo branch issues are distinguishable from contemporaneous Visayan emergency notes by their specific authorization signatures. Survivors are genuinely scarce; the combination of wartime destruction, deliberate burning of reserves, and the general chaos of the Japanese occupation saw most of this paper eliminated before 1942 was out.