BSP says P20 denomination in coin, or bill, is worth P20

Whether in coin or paper bill the P20 will have the same face value as the most widely-circulated denomination of the Philippine peso, Bangko Sentral ng Pilpinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said on Tuesday.

Manuel Quezon III—a descendant of the late President Manuel Quezon whose face appears on the twenty-peso bill—posted on Twitter that issuing the coin equivalent of the paper bill would signal the devaluation of the Philippine peso.

But Diokno does not share the same sentiment.

“The P20 coin is worth the same as the P20 bill. That’s elementary,” Diokno told GMA News Online.

“Psychologically, as citizens, it would send a signal of devaluation. Abolition of one denomination of paper currency sends an overall signal of the shrinking value of our currency,” Quezon noted.

Symbolically, the shift would unintentionally serve to be interpreted as devaluation, or “… the demotion of the personality of the bill to be withdrawn from circulation,” he said.

The BSP announced on Monday that the P20 coin to be launched in December will be easily distinguishable from the rest of the denominations currently in circulation.

The BSP announced earlier this year that plans were afoot to come up with the P20 coin as coins last longer than paper and the P20 bill is the most used of all the banknotes in circulation.

“The P20 bills in circulation is about one-fifth of the total peso bills in circulation as of August 2019,” Diokno said.

Because the P20 banknote is the most-used denomination it is easily rendered unfit for circulation and returned for replacement, the central bank noted, citing a study conducted by the University of the Philippines.

The basis of the Monetary Board’s decision to change the P20 bill into coin was “simply an economic and hygienic one,” Diokno said on Tuesday.

“The P20 bill gets dirty and needs to be replaced after only three months in circulation. It’s extremely costly to print,” the central bank chief noted.

“The P20 coin would last for about 10 years,” he said.

The P20 coin will retain the face of former President Manuel Quezon, but further details and prospective photographs were not immediately available.

In 2017, the central bank issued New Currency Generation coins. Senator Nancy Binay called on the BSP to stop circulating the P5 coins, which supposedly caused confusion in terms of color and size compared with the P1 coin.

However, the central bank moved on with the plan to release the NGC coin series in P10, P5, P1, P0.25, P0.05, and P0.01 denominations with “enhanced … aesthetics and security” features. —VDS, GMA News