500 Pesos Treasury Certificate, Purple back

Treasury Certificates were a distinctly Philippine instrument — not legal tender in the United States, and not backed by the standard Philippine peso silver coinage alone. The 1918 series was issued under American colonial administration, with Francis Burton Harrison serving as Governor-General at the time of signing. Harrison was notably sympathetic to Philippine autonomy and pushed hard for Filipinization of the civil service; his signature on this note places it squarely in that transitional period before the Jones Act reforms took full effect.

The 500-peso denomination would have seen almost no ordinary commerce. At 1918 wage levels in the Philippines, this was several years' income for a laborer — interbank transfers and large commercial settlements being its natural domain.