| Obverse description |
Intaglio-printed note with a pink and red guilloche underprint on a white ground, enclosed within an ornate dark border with floral corner pieces and numeral 5 tablets. At left, a classical allegorical female figure is seated, holding a sheaf of wheat, rendered in fine line engraving. A circular blue seal of the Banco Español Filipino is applied at centre-right, and the date "1.º Enero, 1908" and place "Manila, P.I." appear in script lettering below the denomination. Three manuscript signatures appear at the foot, attributed to the Tenedor de Libros, the Director, and the Cajero. |
| Reverse description |
Entirely printed in red, the reverse is dominated by a central symmetrical guilloche medallion formed by large acanthus-leaf ornaments radiating from a central star, with a large white roman numeral V reserved at centre. The bank name is split across the field in bold serif lettering: EL BANCO arching above, ESPAÑOL to the left, and FILIPINO to the right. The ornate border repeats foliate and scroll motifs, with CINCO in oval cartouches at the lateral margins and numeral 5 in the corner tablets. |
The Banco Español Filipino was the oldest chartered bank in the Philippines, established by royal decree in 1851, and it retained its name well into the American colonial period — an awkward institutional survivor of the Spanish regime operating under a new sovereign. By 1908, the Philippines was firmly under U.S. administration, which explains why note production had shifted to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington rather than any European house.
The bank was reorganized and renamed Bank of the Philippine Islands in 1912, making this late issue one of the final emissions under the original Spanish-era charter. Four years of circulation life remained when these notes were printed.