Catalog
20 Piso
| Issuer | Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas |
|---|---|
| Year | 2022-2023 |
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| Composition | Paper (80% Cotton and 20% Abacá fiber) |
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| Obverse description | Portrait vignette of Manuel L. Quezon in front-facing bust at left centre, set against a guilloche underprint in orange tones. A vignette of Malacañan Palace occupies the lower centre, flanked by an inscription referencing the declaration of Filipino as the national language at left and the arms of the Republic together with the Bangko Sentral seal at upper centre. The date 1935 and the year of issue appear within the design, with the denomination rendered in both Pilipino and numeral form. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 20 REPUBLIKA NG PILIPINAS ANG SALAPING ITO AY BAYARIN NG BANGKO SENTRAL AT PINANANAGUTAN NG REPUBLIKA NG PILIPINAS PINAGPALA ANG BAYAN NA ANG DIYOS AY ANG PANGINOON FILIPINO AS THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE 1935 MALACAÑAN PALACE DALAWAMPUNG PISO MANUEL L. QUEZON 2023 (Translation: Republic of the Philippines This bill is a debt of the central bank and a responsibility of the Republic of the Philippines Blessed are the people that God is the Lord Malacañan Palace Twenty pesos) |
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| Comments |
The 20-piso denomination has had a complicated recent history. The BSP launched a full polymer series in 2022 intending to replace cotton-abacá paper notes, but the 20-piso was never issued in polymer — the denomination was quietly skipped, with no official public explanation beyond general cost-benefit language about denomination usage patterns.
The abacá fiber component is not incidental. The Philippines is the world's dominant abacá producer, and its inclusion in BSP banknote paper has been a deliberate domestic policy since the 1980s, supporting the fiber industry while reducing reliance on fully imported substrate.