50 Centavos

This note was issued under the guerrilla currency program authorized by General Douglas MacArthur and later administered by individual military district commanders operating in Japanese-occupied Philippine territory after the fall of Corregidor in 1942. The Seventh Military District covered parts of Mindanao, and these Command Post W Area notes represent a genuinely local wartime necessity — district commanders were authorized to print their own emergency currency to maintain some economic function in resistance-held zones and pay guerrilla troops.

The fingerprint impression used as a security feature is unusual and worth noting: under the circumstances of jungle-based command posts with no access to conventional anti-counterfeiting technology, a thumbprint — likely from a commanding officer — served as the authenticating mark. Crude but difficult to replicate in the field.