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500 Pesos
| Issuer | USAFFE Guerrilla Forces, Luzon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Portrait vignette of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at left, with an Air Force emblem at right and an embossed seal at centre. The note carries extensive letterpress text authorising issuance of this emergency currency under the command of General MacArthur and President Quezon, bordered by a simple ruled frame. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA LUZON USAFFE GUERILLA ARMY FORCES PHILIPPINES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES AND BY AUTHORITY OF U.S. CONGRESS, AND BY PROCLAMATION OF PRESIDENT F. D. ROOSEVELT IT IS HEREBY ORDERED ISSUANCE OF THIS EMERGENCY CURRENCY OF FIVE HUNDRED PESOS AS LEGAL TENDER FOR OPERATIONS, MAINTENANCE OF THE MAJOR WALTER CUSHING GUERILLAS, UNDER GENERAL MACARTHUR AND PRESIDENT QUEZON, TO BE REDEEMED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES THRU THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT, AFTER THE WAR. TO REFUSE THIS EMERGENCY CURRENCY IS PUNISHABLE BY LAW. |
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| Comments |
USAFFE — United States Army Forces in the Far East — guerrilla currency was issued across Luzon and the Visayas after the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in 1942, when conventional Philippine banking had effectively collapsed under Japanese occupation. Local commanders were authorized, with varying degrees of official backing from MacArthur's staff, to print emergency money to pay troops and procure supplies from sympathetic civilians. The Luzon issues are among the more formally organized of these guerrilla series, though production quality varied significantly by district and print run.
At 500 Pesos, this is the highest denomination in the S422 series — a figure that would have represented substantial purchasing power in a wartime rural economy where Japanese military scrip, derisively called "Mickey Mouse money," was simultaneously circulating under duress.