Transcript No. 2057
August 22, 2000
WORLD WAR TWO PHILIPPINE PAPER MONEY
By Gerald Tebben
Why would the U.S. government take new paper money and put it into a revolving drum . . . with sand, floor sweepings and soggy coffee grounds?
The answer to that question is: To win a war.
During World War II, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which manufactures the paper money of the United States and a few other countries, was asked several times to help with the war effort.
In early 1943, the War Department urgently needed a large amount of circulated Philippine paper money. The Army was supporting guerrilla operations in the islands, then held by the Japanese. Infiltrators needed to buy supplies in the Philippines, and they needed to buy them inconspicuously.
The Bureau had a large supply of Philippine paper money on hand, printed before the war. But these brand-new crisp bills wouldn’t do for the military’s needs. New bills would have attracted unwanted attention in the islands, and tipped off the enemy that something was afoot.
So a small cadre of federal employees, sworn to secrecy until after the war, counted out the new stock of Philippine bills . . . and then, aged them. The bills were placed in a gigantic rotating drum, along with the mixture of sand, floor sweepings and soggy coffee grounds. After several hours of spinning the money in the drum at a speed of 60 revolutions per minute–the now-crumpled and dirty bills were removed from the drum, packed for shipment, and secretly dispatched to the Philippine guerrillas. Today, it’s impossible to distinguish these bills from the paper money that circulated in the Philippines before the war.
Did these bills help win the war? All we know is that the Philippine guerrillas were well-armed and rose up against the Japanese . . . when the U.S., under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur, began the operation which lead to the eventual liberation of the Philippines.
– “Money Talks” is a copyrighted production of the American Numismatic Association, 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903, 719/632-2646, ana@money.org. For information about educational seminars on coin collecting and grading, call 1-800-367-9723 and request a brochure.