2 Pesos

The Leyte Emergency Currency Board was one of several provincial and municipal bodies that issued guerrilla currency in the Philippines during Japanese occupation. These notes were produced covertly to keep civil administration functioning in areas where resistance forces maintained some control — accepting Japanese Military pesos was both economically ruinous and, for many, a political act they refused to perform.

Leyte issues are among the better-documented guerrilla series, partly because American military intelligence took an active interest in their circulation as evidence of organized resistance infrastructure. Physical production was improvised; paper quality and printing consistency vary considerably across the run.