New P1,000 bills out

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has issued the first P1,00 notes bearing the signature of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo coinciding with the BSP’s eighth anniversary celebration.

The 1,000-Piso notes with added security features bearing the President’s signature will have two versions.

Version 1 has the same furnish and security features as the present 1,000-Piso notes, but with the improved optical variable ink (OVI) printed value panel. Only 500,000 pieces of this note were printed just to exhaust BSP’s inventory of the cotton-linen banknote paper.

Version 2 of the 1,000-Piso banknote with the President’s signature has 20 percent abaca and 80 percent cotton furnish. It will also have the OVI printed value panel and enhanced security features which include an iridescent band and windowed colorshift with cleartext security thread.

The Philippines remains the world’s largest producer of abaca, supplying about 84 percent of the world’s requirement which includes Japan as the number one importer.

The integration of abaca in our notes which has been undertaken in phases in order to improve the strenght properties of the banknote paper will result in longer circulation life and at the same time will give the abaca market a big boost.