Commemorative coins at least

I THINK Philippines is a country that has changed its bills and coins many times over, or as new president sits in office. I cannot contain my awe as to how I was able to witness many shapes, colors and sizes of coins and bills designed and were out from the time I was already able to recognize money.

Compared to United States and Japan, they have fewer denomination and their design, size and shape have never change in many years. But in the Philippines, you can expect that as soon as new president comes in, changing the money is part of its to-do list.

But why do we keep on doing this when other countries do not seem to bother? What are we trying to prove? That we know and can design?

According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ( BSP), they are changing the design of our money as a matter of practice. Central banks regularly change the designs of their money – whether coins or banknotes – to guard against counterfeiters. By making it very difficult and costly for counterfeiters to produce exact copies of our money, we protect the integrity of our currency against criminals. Well, this is a very noble intention.

But then again, BSP has further stated that in order to prevent the spread of counterfeit or fake money, they have upgraded the security features in all of our new generation banknotes to make it easier for the public to protect themselves from receiving fake money. The BSP will continue to mount a

nationwide information campaign to educate our people on how to tell genuine banknotes from counterfeits. If they upgrade the security feature and can conduct info campaign that does not answer the question why they have to keep on redesigning – size, looks and shapes – that can and are all-confusing.

Well, at least the coins we recently have are just commemorative coins; my goodness! You have to check the coins twice and sometimes thrice to make sure you got to pay drivers or pantries the right amount. Others say that at least now we have the time to take a look first on the penny we spent before spending them away.

The confusion we get and the assurance we want to have let us look at the coins and appreciate its value. Unlike before that we do

not have the time to appreciate P10 or P5 or P1 because we know it by feeling at once and seeing is unnecessary.

Commemorative coins are designed and produced in limited quantities to showcase significant events, the legacy of a deceased person, Philippine landmarks or an advocacy. The most recently issued are the five-peso Bagong Bayani coin in honor of overseas Filipinos and another marking the Leyte Landing, and a 10peso coin celebrating the 150th year of Philippine hero Apolinario Mabini.

The Bangko Sentral also called on the public to help preserve the integrity of Philippine currency and encouraged coin recirculation “through regular use in daily transactions.” ( Paid article)