I picked up this note years ago and it's been sitting with the rest of my bills just aging. I am not a paper collector, so I don't know anything about this note other than what I was able to read on it. Anybody want to tell me more about this? I doubt I'll sell it, but just curious about value ballpark. Cheers!
It was issued at the time of the Japanese invasion of the Phillipines as there was a shortage of paper money and not much chance of been resupplied from Mainland USA. These and similar notes were issued throught the Islands and used by the guerillas as currency possesion of the notes could lead to execution as it would show a connection to the resistance movement. Just checked but I seem to have lost my notes on them!!
not a bad history on those notes. Execution just for carrying one eh'? wow! Nice note ya got there Dima dont need them guerillas coming back to get there money
The Mountain Province notes are one of the more common series of Philippine Guerrilla notes. If I remember correctly, there are only 8-10 notes from Mountain Province and putting together a set is fairly easy and inexpensive (should cost less than $30.00). The red writing on this note is not part of the original issue. It may be signature for a souvenir like a short snorter. They do not appear to be validation signatures as these are in a different format than you usually see.
It does sound extreme, execution, for possessing one of the notes, but that was how the Japanese felt - that if you had one of the notes you were associating with the opposition. The Japanese occupation of the Philippines as well as other Asian nations was brutal. History seems to have ignored the fact that life in the Philippines, Burma, China etc under Japanese occupation was just about as rotten as life under Nazi occupation in countries like Poland or Ukraine. That is why I appreciate the Philippine resistance money all the more, they showed incredible perseverance and determination just issuing it and then on top of that by using it. The designs are often crude, but the movement behind them was well developed and eventually succeeded in liberating the Philippines from occupation.
