Japanese 5 peso bill

What is the story of this 5 peso bill? What country was it issued in? I never knew Japan used pesos. It looks eerily like an American $5 bill.

 

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Since I have magic Google on my 'puter I can inform you that in the past (History) the Japanese held a little party (Invasion) in the Philippines. These were some of their party favors.

 

I thought it might have had something to do with the Philippines. My search engine was damaged in the ice storm we had last weekend so I couldn't do a search.

 

Sorry you lost the search engine to the ice storm. Hope you can jury-rig it soon if it can't be fixed outright.

 

Why does it look so much like an American $5 bill?

 

Because they weren't smart enough to design their own?

 

The Japanese government felt the similarity to the US currency would bolster acceptance of the occupation money, much information on the interweb.

 

You may also enjoy reading the history of pre and post invasion of the Philippines . The fact that before the invasion by Japan ,crates of silver Pesos were dumped into the bay so they could not capture the value of the silver in them.
If you look at any 1 peso coins most will have salt water effects on them. You should also check out the notes printed by US for the Philippines and compare to the Japanese version .

 

US made Philippines coins too. I have a nice 10 centavos (silver) Philippines, 1938 that I got from my old LCS for 50 cents or so.

 

The Philippines became part of the Spanish (Spain) Empire in 1571.
1946 I believe was their independence from Spain.
They have many words that originated from Castellano (Spanish)
One of them is Peso

 

Maybe this will help:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/post-your-japanese-invasion-currency-here.280959/

 

The US gained possession of the Philippines as reparations from the Spanish American War in the Treaty of Paris in 1898.

 

1946 was independence from the US who took the islands from Spain in 1898.

 

The US also gained possession of Guam and Puerto Rico from Spain in that same Treaty and Cuba gained it's independence from Spain "under the protection of the US"

 

I did an ebay search and these things are cheap! I'm going to have to buy a few. Maybe they'll go up in value like the $100 trillion bill from Zimbabwe did.

 

As with anything, condition is everything. There are lots and lots out there, but if you're looking, look for the best, they aren't that high.

 

Thanks for the link.

It must have angered the citizens of the Philippines to see "THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT" in huge letters on the fronts of those bills.

 

I read somewhere once that it took something like 75 Japanese Pesos to buy an egg. Unlike the US Peso that had silver backing it, the Japanese Pesos had nothing. The different provinces in the Philippines, started printing their own currency which is now called "guerilla currency" as a result. It is a bit harder to find in good condition, I suspect because in was hidden where ever and traded frequently.

 

The fact that paper money in tropical regions has a tendency to rot. I would suspect that finding it in good condition would be a real challenge.

 

Varieties of Japanese occupation currency intended for many different conquests were issued, often in huge numbers, and often as a form of exploitation. You must take these notes in exchange for something of value you have that we want. There is nothing, or almost nothing, you can buy with them. If you refuse, you will be arrested, tortured and executed as a saboteur.
Oddly enough, large quantities of these notes survived the war. Some money is so manifestly worthless that it's hard to make people accept it even at gunpoint.