The Philippine peso fuerte (Spanish "Strong Peso"
sign
A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...
: PF) was the first paper currency of the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
and the
Spanish East Indies
The Spanish East Indies were the colonies of the Spanish Empire in Asia-Pacific, Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1901, governed through the Captaincy General of the Philippines, captaincy general in Manila for the Monarchy of Spain, Spanish Crown, i ...
during the later
Spanish colonial period. It co-circulated with other Spanish silver and gold coins and was issued by El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II (currently
Bank of the Philippine Islands
The Bank of the Philippine Islands ('';'' '','' commonly known as BPI; ) is a universal bank in the Philippines. It is the oldest bank in both the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It is the fourth largest bank in terms of assets, the second lar ...
). The banknotes were convertible to either silver pesos or gold coins at the bank's discretion. The colonial government at the time allowed El Banco Español-Filipino to issue pesos fuertes up to one-fourths of its subscribed capital, or a maximum of PF 100,000, which was subsequently raised to 300,000 in 1855.
El Banco Español-Filipino began issuing peso fuerte notes on May 1, 1852. As of the end of the 19th century its circulating volume of 1,800,000 pesos was small relative to about 40,000,000 silver pesos in circulation. See
History of Philippine money. The currency was replaced by the modern
peso
The peso is the monetary unit of several Hispanophone, Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, as well as the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries of the Americas, the symbol com ...
in 1903.
In the beginning of the 20th century an American
Thomasite teacher described the paper currency of the Banco Español-Filipino as ''"printed on a kind of pink blotting paper which looked as if it would be easy to counterfeit."''
Denominations
In 1868, the
Spanish Revolution of 1868 overthrew
Isabel II
Isabella II (, María Isabel Luisa de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias; 10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904) was Queen of Spain from 1833 until her deposition in 1868. She is the only queen regnant in the history of unified Spain.
Isabella wa ...
and forced her to exile in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. Upon hearing the news, the bank decided to rename itself as El Banco Español-Filipino, dropping the "Isabel II" from the name.
In 1877, the colonial government also began issuing peso fuerte-denominated treasury notes
Gallery
File:PHL - 50 pesos fuertes anverso.jpg, Cincuenta Pesos Fuertes (1852-1865)
Image:PHL_-_50_pesos_fuertes_reverso.jpg, Cincuenta Pesos Fuertes (1883)
Image:Treasury25note.jpg, Veinte Cinco Pesos Fuertes (1877)
See also
*
Philippine peso
References
External links
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas - Philippine Central Bank WebsitePhilippine Money - Coins and Banknotes
{{Philippine peso history
Peso
Modern obsolete currencies
1898 disestablishments
Philippines currency history