Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
20 Centavos
| Issuer | Headquarters Volunteer Service Corps, USAFFE, Balangiga, Samar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Peso (1941-1945) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Typewritten emergency circulating note on horizontally ruled red-line paper, with the denomination struck in large violet letterpress numerals at centre. Text arranged in horizontal lines across the face carries the issuing authority, place of issue, and promise-to-pay legend, with the series designation 'S/1943' repeated at left and right flanking the central value. Three signature lines for the Municipal Treasurer, Commanding Officer, and Municipal Mayor appear along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER SERVICE CORPS USAFFE IN THE FIELD BALANGIGA, SAMAR, PHILIPPINES CIRCULATING NOTES HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER SERVICE CORPS USAFFE will pay the bearer on demand TWENTY CENTAVOS 20 ¢ Mun. Treasurer Command. Officer Mun. Mayor |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The United States Armed Forces in the Far East guerrilla currency issues from Samar are among the most locally specific emergency notes produced during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The Headquarters Volunteer Service Corps operated in the Eastern Visayas, where isolated commands frequently printed their own scrip simply to maintain a functioning internal economy — paying informants, local suppliers, and auxiliary personnel when no other medium of exchange was available.
Balangiga itself carries a loaded history entirely separate from the occupation: it was the site of the 1901 massacre that triggered one of the most brutal American reprisals of the Philippine-American War. That a U.S.-aligned command chose it as an issuing point four decades later is an unremarked coincidence most catalog entries skip past.
Production was strictly local — hand-typed or mimeographed in most comparable Samar issues, with serial control often minimal.