New Year, New Money: Expect These Changes To Your Peso Bills This 2017

The New Year is here. But it’s not just you jotting down New Year’s Resolutions and enlisting in #balikalindog programs; your peso bills are also welcoming transformation with new features. Here’s a glimpse of some of them.

The new regime

Fresh off the high-tech printing press of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the new bills that will go into the circulation now bears the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte. The initial batch of New Generation Currency bills were distributed to the banks in December 2016.

For numismatists who want to collect uncut sheets of bills or even those who want to earn some bucks in the future from bills, they can go the BSP office and ask about uncut sheets of money.

An uncut sheet consists of 32 pieces of bills. Call the central bank’s office and ask on how to procure a copy.

If ever you’re wondering how much uncut sheets of money cost, a sheet of uncut New Design Series bills worth P100 bearing the signatures of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and ex-BSP Governor Gabriel Singson are now worth P80,000. That’s a 2,500-percent increase in value over the years!

Freshly minted

In 2015, Regional Monetary Affairs Managing Director Iluminada Sicat said the Central Bank would be issuing new coins in 2017 as part of the BSP’s effort to be in line with the New Generation Currency series.

According to a report by SunStar Cebu, the government would like to replace the current generation of coins, which is even older than the New Design Series. “Probably in the later part of 2016 or early part of 2017 (BSP will release the new coin series),” Sicat said.

However, another official of the BSP said in the same year that the central bank will mint and issue new coins in 2019.

According to BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo, the numismatic committee just completed its study of new features like design, security measures, and dimensions of the upcoming coins.

“By 2018 or 2019, we should have one set of new generation banknotes and one set of new generation coins, both with cutting-edge security features,” said Guinigundo in a report on GMA News Online.

“We will be finalizing all our recommendations for the approval by the Monetary Board and, as provided by the BSP charter, we are also going to the Palace for the presidential approval,” he added.