P1,000 Bill Bags Prestigious Banknote Award—Here's Why
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s 1000-Piso polymer banknote won “Best New Banknote Award” for 2023 from High Security Printing Asia (HSPA), a regional forum showcasing the latest technologies and techniques in producing and issuing banknotes, ePassports, ID cards, visas, and other secure documents across Asia. The award was announced in Colombo, Sri Lanka last December 5.
The “Best New Banknote Award” is a category under HSPA’s regional Banknote of the Year Award, recognizing banknotes and series with outstanding design, technical sophistication, and security achievements. Considerable emphasis is placed on reflecting the cultural heritage and relevance of the overall design and symbolism to the issuing country.
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The P1000 note's obverse highlights the Philippine Eagle, which symbolizes the Filipinos’ uniqueness, strength, power, love for freedom, and sharp vision. It also showcases the national flower, Sampaguita, which represents purity, simplicity, humility, and strength.
The reverse side, on the other hand, features the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site; the T'nalak weave design; and the South Sea Pearl.
The bill faced initial backlash for omitting World War II Filipino martyrs Josefa Llanes-Escoda, Gen. Vicente Lim, and Jose Abad Santos, who were previously depicted on it. But BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno clarified that the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (formerly National Historical Institute) had approved the new design of the P1,000 bill.
The 1000-Piso polymer banknote also has several security features, which include multiple transparent windows, embossed prints, metallic images and symbols, shadow threads, and tactile dots. Notice that it also has a transparent embossed outline of a stylized flying eagle. Several of these are integrated into the guardian substrate itself.
The BSP began circulating the 1000-Piso polymer banknote in April 2022. BSP says the introduction of polymer banknotes not only strengthens its efforts against counterfeiting but also addresses public health and safety concerns arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only do viruses and bacteria survive for shorter periods on polymer compared with paper banknotes, polymer bills can also be sanitized with less risk of damage, making them cleaner and more hygienic.
There were perceived risks--that the bills cannot be folded or get wet. But BSP later clarified that folded P1,000 polymer banknotes should still be accepted.
Note Printing Australia Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Australia’s central bank, prints the banknote.
