Handling Philippine currency: color and demonetization

FilAmericanMom wrote:

Just a few advice:

1. The color of two Philippine currencies look very much alike, so look before you hand out money:
1,000 pesos (blue) can be confused with 100 pesos (purplish blue)
500 pesos (yellow) can be confused with 20 pesos (yellow orange)

My assistant almost handed out 500 pesos for a 20-peso purchase at a public market. Me, I almost handed out 3 pieces of 1,000 pesos as 300-peso change instead of 3 pieces of 100 pesos.

2. There would be a demonetization of 1985 series paper currency. You cannot use these for transactions after December 31, 2015. But you can still exchange these for the new 2010 series at banks, but only up to the end of 2016. Here's a link explaining demonetization schedule of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Philippine Central Bank): http://www.bsp.gov.ph/publications/media.asp?id=3888

If you have some cash at home, say for emergencies, check if you have the old series. Replace them with the new series and use the old ones before the end of 2015. Do not accept the old series after 2015, unless you don't mind the hassle of going to a bank to replace them with the new series. After 2016, you won't be able to exchange the 1985 series at banks.

Good reminder, we won't be back until 2017, just sent our cash to family.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!