Central Bank says consumers should read peso bills to avoid confusion over colors

OVER THE mounting complaints of the hard to distinguish colors of the new generation currency (NGC) which the Central Bank is circulating as legal tender, a key official of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it is high time that people should read and not just look.

In 2010, BSP started replacing the new design series (NDS) of banknotes which started circulation in 1985. As BSP is slowly demonetizing the 30-year old NDS, the NGC replaces it as legal tender, explained BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo.

But with the new development, the Central Bank has received complaints about the hard to distinguish colors that are now being used.

Some of the complaints have been over the P500 bill, which share the similar yellow shade as the P20 bill. Both can be easily mistaken for the other, similar to the P1,000 and P100 bills. But Guinigundo downplayed the issue saying “there is an extra zero in P1,000.”

“The solution is that society should read, we need to teach our people to read and not just look at the colors," Guinigundo said.

Pressing for proof on his claims, Guinigundo pointed out that dollar economies only have green banknotes, and still they do not have problems. “We have simply added the colors of the banknotes to help people determine the money,” he said.

Among the new colors are bright orange (P20), bright red (P50), purple (P100), bright green (P200), bright yellow (P500) and bright blue P1000. The older NDS become unacceptable as legal tender for daily transactions starting January 1, 2016.

On this date, only the NGC would be used for daily transactions. Failing to do that, holders of old banknotes would have to exchange these in the banks, as these financial institutions are still mandated to accept the notes for exchange until the end of 2016, according to Guinigundo.