Guerrilla money- and the other currencies in use in the Philippines during World War II- are the main focus of this website. I will also include a few links to major guerrilla activities and/or people, to give a sense of the greater picture, but this site is focused on the currency itself. There is also a Facebook discussion group.
For a quick intro to notes and how to navigate this site, go here.
This site is a work in progress. It was originally created back in the mid 90s, and many of the scans are from back then. I am actively working on revising the images, so there are several placeholders currently on many of the pages. Please bear with me as the dust settles and I add to the selections here. Also, I will be adding information for each note and series as I can, but this too will take time.
During World War Two, the Japanese took over the Philippine Islands (starting the day after the Pearl Harbor attack). The Bataan Death March occurred due to this, and the Filipinos had to endure years of puppet government rule and hostile occupying forces. Many of the soldiers who were not captured by the Japanese either formed or joined resistance (guerrilla) groups. Some of these groups made their own governments, courts, stamps, and currency. The Japanese government and it’s puppet government also issued their own currencies.
The purpose of this site is to document the various forms of currency in use during World War Two in the Philippines. To this end, I have attempted to gather as many scans of the existing notes as I could, and have categorized them based on issuing body. If you have a note that is in far better condition that the one I show, please submit a scan of the note, front and back, to me so that it can be included on this site.
‘Republica Ng Pilipinas‘ was the puppet government that the Japanese put in place. J.I.M. (Japanese Invasion Money) notes were the official issue of the Japanese government in the Philippines during the occupancy period.
‘Aviator‘ and ‘War‘ notes can be found under the US Military Issues category.
Municipal and guerrilla military issues can be found under the province in which they were primarily located.
I am currently looking for people who would like to contribute articles on various provinces/municipalities. These articles will be placed under the appropriate area, with attribution.
NOTE: This is *not* a commercial site. The notes listed here are simply scans that were donated by various people, or notes from my own collection. To purchase notes from this period, please refer to my ‘links’ page for a list of dealers and organizations.
