Philippine peso | |
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Piso ng Pilipinas (Tagalog) | |
New Generation Currency banknotes, in current circulation.
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ISO 4217 | |
Code | PHP |
Denominations | |
Subunit | |
1⁄100 | Sentimo or centavo |
Symbol | ₱ |
Banknotes | |
Freq. used | ₱20, ₱50, ₱100, ₱500, ₱1000 |
Rarely used | ₱200 |
Coins | |
Freq. used | ₱1, ₱5, ₱10 |
Rarely used | 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢ |
Demographics | |
User(s) | Philippines |
Issuance | |
Central bank | Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas |
Website | www |
Printer | The Security Plant Complex |
Website | www |
Mint | The Security Plant Complex |
Website | www |
Valuation | |
Inflation | 1.6% (2016 average) |
Source | Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, February 2016 |
Method | CPI |
The Philippine peso (Filipino: piso [pɪˈso]; sign: ₱; code: PHP) is the official currency of the Philippines. It is subdivided into 100 centavos (Filipino: sentimo). As a former colony of the United States, the country used English on its currency, with the word "peso" appearing on notes and coinage until 1967. Since the adoption of Filipino language for banknotes and coins, the term "piso" is now used.
The peso is usually denoted by the symbol "₱". Other ways of writing the Philippine peso sign are "PHP", "PhP", "Php", "P$", or just "P". The "₱" symbol was added to the Unicode standard in version 3.2 and is assigned U+20B1 (₱). The symbol can be accessed through some word processors by typing in "20b1" and then pressing the Alt and X buttons simultaneously. This symbol is unique to the Philippines as the symbol used for the peso in countries like Mexico and other former colonies of Spain in Latin America is "$".
The Philippine coins and banknotes are minted and printed at the Security Plant Complex of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) in Quezon City.
The trade the pre-colonial tribes of what is now the Philippines did among themselves with its many types of pre-Hispanic kingdoms (kedatuans, rajahnates, wangdoms, lakanates and sultanates) and with traders from the neighboring islands was conducted through barter. The inconvenience of barter however later led to the use of some objects as a medium of exchange. Gold, which was plentiful in many parts of the islands, invariably found its way into these objects that included the piloncitos, small bead-like gold bits considered by the local numismatists as the earliest coin of the ancient peoples of the Philippines, and gold barter rings.