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5 Centavos
| Issuer | Philippines Commonwealth Bureau of Health - Culion Leper Colony (Palawan) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S252 |
| Obverse description | Plain light-toned paper with all text produced by typewriter-style letterpress printing. The central text certifies the obligation to pay the bearer five centavos in legal tender currency, with the denomination '15¢' repeated at upper left and upper right and the year '1942' flanking the issuer line. Three manuscript signatures appear below the main text body, attributed to the Disbursing Officer C.L.C., the Acting Chief C.L.C., and the Chairman E.C.C., with a serial number printed beneath. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | Issued by Authority of the PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES Transmitted 2/9/42 through the Commanding General, USAFFE, Iloilo THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS Department of Public Instruction Bureau of Health |
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| Comments |
Culion's leper colony scrip occupies a genuinely strange corner of monetary history. The Philippine Commonwealth's Bureau of Health maintained a parallel currency system at Culion specifically to prevent colony residents from introducing notes into general circulation — a public health quarantine measure expressed through economics. By 1942, the Japanese occupation had disrupted supply lines to the island, and this late Commonwealth issue was circulating alongside, and in competition with, Japanese Military Administration pesos flooding the archipelago.
Earlier Culion issues date back to 1913. The series ran across several decades with surprisingly consistent administrative intent, even as the political authority overhead changed hands repeatedly.