20 Centavos

One of dozens of emergency guerrilla currency issues that proliferated across the Philippine provinces after the Japanese occupation of 1942 forced local governments to establish their own monetary systems. The Misamis Occidental Currency Committee operated in Mindanao, one of the islands where American-Filipino resistance held ground longest, and these notes were a practical tool of that resistance — used to pay soldiers, buy supplies, and maintain a functional local economy outside Japanese control.

Three signatories on a 20-centavo note is unusual and suggests a deliberate accountability structure, likely imposed to prevent fraud within the committee itself. Paper and printing quality across the Misamis Occidental series varies considerably; the notes were produced under wartime constraints with whatever materials were available locally.