The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) was chosen by the International Bank Note Society (IBNS) to receive the “Banknote of the Year” award for the first time for their P1,000 polymer banknote.
The law for the water- and dirt-resistant polymer was circulated by the BSP in April 2022. Note Printing Australia, a division of the Reserve Bank of Australia, printed it.
IBNS selected the banknote with the Philippine Eagle as its main image from among 100 brand-new banknotes for the 2022 award, according to its website.
According to IBNS, the Philippines’ 1000-peso note has been the clear favorite since voting began. Polymer “represents a dramatic shift from the cotton and abaca material previously used,” the publication added.
IBNS noted that the polymer front design features the “critically endangered” Philippine Eagle, also known as the monkey-eating eagle, and the holographic Sampaguita, the country’s national flower. IBNS stated that the “Philippines’s successful design in eye-pleasing blue combines an endangered species with an environmental motif.”
The reverse design, on the other hand, is comparable to the one on the paper version, which also included the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the South Sea pearl, and the T’nalak weave pattern of the T’boli people of the Philippines.
According to the IBNS, only 19 nominations remained out of the 100 new banknote designs that competed. The 50-pound note from Northern Ireland’s Ulster Bank and the 100-pound note from the Bank of Scotland were the close runners-up to the BSP’s P1,000 polymer. Banknotes from Algeria, Barbados, and Egypt were also finalists.
According to the BSP’s statement, IBNS is a worldwide non-profit organization that honors outstanding banknotes annually based on their creative merits, including design and color utilization, as well as superior security measures.
On May 4, the central bank stated, “The BSP hopes that the design of the polymer banknote will remind Filipinos of the significance of environmental preservation and the need to ensure a sustainable future for all.”
About 17,304 ATMs nationwide, or 92 percent of all automated teller machines, would be dispensing polymer banknotes by the end of December 2022, the BSP reported in January.
The 500 million pieces of the polymer banknotes, which are only issued in denominations of P1,000, will be in circulation this year, compared to the 39 million that were distributed the previous year.
The BSP is introducing the polymer banknotes gradually to give banks and the general public time to get used to them. Additionally, it will give the BSP time to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of switching to polymer.
