Commonwealth of The Philippines

1942 Series Official Issue

S137 (x) 

ADVANCE COLLECTOR NOTE

(x) Counterfeit: Numerous Varieties 

Large Commonwealth Arms at Right.

Serials Range: #1 to #157,258

Back Countersigned. 

(g) Back Pen Signed of TREASURER at One End, 

MEMBERS Facsimile at Other End Together Opposite End. 

Serial Range For This Signature Combination is #158,001 to #159,00 and a Jump to #161,000 to #185,462

 (#205,301)

Clearly Not In Serial Number Range, Contemporary Identified as Counterfeit Right After The War.

     Known counterfeits are listed in various catalogs, but other undoubtedly exist and may turn up as collectors become better informed. Actually, counterfeiting was a very minor problem considering the adverse conditions,  under which these currencies were produced. The collector need have little concern about being stuck with a counterfeit. Except for three notes, counterfeits are far scarcer than their genuine counterparts and are eagerly sought by the specialist. It should be emphasized that the listing counterfeits in the various catalogs, notes where produced during the war for circulation. There are no known modern fakes listed in the various catalogs, only contemporary.

     Most counterfeits are very easily identified as the majority were produced under even more adverse conditions than the genuine. In most cases counterfeiters did not have numbering machines, thus many counterfeits are readily identifiable by the crudeness of serial number. In other cases counterfeiters made glaring mistakes. The most difficult to identify are counterfeits of like the 5 and 10 PESOS notes of Bohol. A few of these are of even better production than the genuine. Including serial number. Even so, the majority of them are identifiable as they have the wrong countersignatures for corresponding serial number blocks.

     Two counterfeits of Mindanao (S488 S528) are very common but easily identified. None of them ever saw use in Mindanao. They were produced in the Manila area for the black market when the Japanese Military Peso had depreciated so much (1,000 to 1) that any other form of currency was preferable.

     Counterfeiting in Bohol was so rampart that it must have been a major wartime occupation. However there are so many different variations of the 5 and 10 Pesos notes, with the genuine notes being more common, that even in catalogs the counterfeit is far scarcer then the genuine notes at times

Please see the scans for your personal grading.

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