The Philippine peso
Currency · PHP · ₱ · 1 country
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, set up on 3 July 1993 in place of the Central Bank of the Philippines, holds the exclusive power to issue the peso's coins and notes. Its ₱ sign was decreed by the American colonial government on 3 August 1903, and since 1967 the coins have carried the Filipino names piso and sentimo.
The sign
Executive Order No. 66 of the American colonial government created the ₱ on 3 August 1903: a capital P with two parallel lines through its loop, to set the new Philippine peso apart from the $ sign. It entered Unicode in version 3.2 as U+20B1. PHP, PhP and a plain P also appear.
- ISO code
- PHP
- ISO number
- 608
- Subunit
- sentimo, 1/100
An amount, written out
₱1,234.50
- ₱1,234.50EnglishPhilippines
The sign in code
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UTF-8
- HTML
₱₱- CSS
content: "\20B1";- JavaScript
"\u20B1"- UTF-8
0xE2 0x82 0xB1- UTF-16
0x20B1- UTF-32
0x000020B1
Where the Philippine peso is the official currency
The Philippines uses it on its own, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas may not issue more of it than its total assets.
About the Philippine peso
Who issues the peso and on what authority
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) was established under the 1987 Constitution and the New Central Bank Act of 1993, Republic Act No. 7653. It took over from the Central Bank of the Philippines, which had opened on 3 January 1949. The BSP has the exclusive power to issue coins and notes for circulation, and the total it issues may not exceed its total assets.
Most of the money is made at home. The BSP Security Plant Complex has overseen the design, production and issuance of four generations of legal tender currency.
How the peso passed from Spain to America
Under Spain the peso stood on two metals, because a gold onza, the same weight as a Spanish silver dollar, was officially worth 16 silver pesos and the ratio drifted away from the price of gold in world trade. Silver fell. Mexican peso imports were forbidden from 1877. The first paper money was the peso fuerte of El Banco Español Filipino de Isabel II, the bank now called the Bank of the Philippine Islands.
After 1898 the American administration reopened the door to Mexican pesos. Then came the Philippine Coinage Act of 1903. It defined the unit as a gold peso that was never coined, 12.9 grains of gold 0.900 fine, worth exactly half a US dollar. The tie to gold ended when the dollar's gold content was cut in 1934; the rate of ₱2 to US$1 held until independence in 1946. Coins were struck in the United States at first, until the Manila Mint reopened in 1920.
Why the coins say piso and sentimo
In 1967 the Pilipino series replaced English on the coins, turning the peso and the centavo into the piso and the sentimo. Banknotes followed in 1969 with notes of 1 to 100 piso. Everyday speech kept the older word: centavo, in local spellings such as síntabo and sentabo, remains the common term in Tagalog and several other Philippine languages.
Ang Bagong Lipunan notes came in 1973, Flora and Fauna coins in 1983 and the New Design notes in 1985, a series that added a 1,000 piso note in 1991.
What the current notes and coins show
The New Generation Currency notes were first issued in December 2010, with designs of famous Filipinos and natural wonders. The BSP enhanced them in 2020 for older and visually impaired users. Its New Generation coins, launched in 2018 according to the BSP, carry historical figures and native plants. December 2019 brought two changes: a bimetallic 20 piso coin that will in time replace the 20 piso note, and a nine-sided 5 piso issued after numerous complaints that the round steel one looked too much like the 1 and 10 piso coins.
Polymer arrived on 6 April 2022 with a 1,000 piso note showing the Philippine eagle. Notes of 50, 100 and 500 piso followed on 19 December 2024, all built around protected wildlife. It had a rough start. In July 2022 a shopper reported that a mall had refused a folded 1,000 piso note, and the BSP and the mall chain both said afterwards that folded polymer notes were accepted.
Common questions
Questions about the Philippine peso
Why is the Philippine peso sign a P with two lines?
The United States colonial government decreed it in Executive Order No. 66 of 3 August 1903, describing a capital P with two parallel lines passing through the loop. Officials were to use it for the new Philippine peso so that it would not be confused with the $ sign. The new sign replaced the $ that had marked the peso throughout Spanish America.
Is it centavo or sentimo?
Both are correct. Sentimo, from the Spanish céntimo, has been the official Filipino name for the hundredth of a peso since the Pilipino coin series of 1967. Centavo and its local spellings, síntabo and sentabo, are still what most Filipinos say.
Are folded polymer banknotes still valid in the Philippines?
Yes. In July 2022 a shopper posted a folded 1,000 piso polymer note that a mall had refused, and warned others not to fold theirs. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the mall chain then stated officially that folded polymer notes were accepted. The polymer series began with that 1,000 piso note on 6 April 2022 and added the 50, 100 and 500 piso on 19 December 2024.
What was the peso worth under American rule?
The Philippine Coinage Act of 1903 fixed it at half a US dollar, defined as a theoretical gold peso of 12.9 grains of gold 0.900 fine. Silver certificates issued by the Insular Government were backed at the same fixed rate of two to one. The gold link ended in 1934, when the US dollar's gold content was reduced, and the rate of ₱2 to US$1 lasted until independence in 1946.