BSP refutes design errors in new banknotes
MANILA – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will come out with 45 million pieces of new generation currencies before year-end amid some allegations against the design of the money.
“We don’t have to recall these banknotes because these banknotes are without errors. We did not fumble,” BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said in a briefing.
He aired this, following comments over the week-end, saying the central bank erred in justifying the Philippine map printed at the back of the notes as well as the real color of the beak and tail feather of the rare blue-naped bird at the P500 bill.
The comments said the map on the P500 bill dislocated the subterranean river Saint Paul’s, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Also, the location of the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park on the P1,000 billion was allegedly misplaced by around 4,000 kilometers while the Batanes group of islands were excluded.
Guinigundo said the map used in the new currency was an abstraction “that cannot be expected to reflect all of our islands and the precise coordinates of each site.”
“The BSP’s intention is to indicate the general location of the world heritage sites and iconic natural wonders,” he said reading the BSP statement.
Regarding the color of the bird at the P500 bill, Guinigundo said the problem was due to “printing limitations.”
He said that “while specialized machines for printing money can imprint security features on our banknotes, it has limited capability for printing colors, unlike machines used to print magazines and books.”
“This is not an error therefore but a function of printing capability limitation,” he said.
The bird printed on the new currency has a yellow beak but this should be red while its tail was in yellow instead of green.
Guinigundo said that amid the negative comments that came out on the news regarding the new money, monetary officials were getting more positive comments on it.
He said international numismatist Doug Andrews, a member of numismatic organizations in Canada, US and the Philippines, lauded the design of the new Philippine notes.
Relatively, Guinigundo said 33 banks were given a box each of new P20 billion and these were released starting Monday.
Meanwhile, the BSP official said people should not concerned only on the design of the new paper bills but also on its security features.
“We want to give focus as well on the new and upgraded security features that we have incorporated on all our new generation banknotes to protect the public from counterfeiters and uphold the integrity of the Philippine banknotes,” he said.* PNA
