By Jade L. Miguel
MANILA, Feb 24 (PNA) — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reports 51% circulation of its New Generation Currency (NGC) since its release on December 2010.
Grace Malic, BSP Cash Department’s Acting Deputy Director of Currency Analysis and Redemption Division, said although the NGC has been in circulation since 2010, it still co-exists with the New Design Series (NDS) which has been in circulation for more than 25 years now.
On the other hand, BSP has yet to decide on when the NDS will be phased-out.
Malic also said the BSP continues to rehabilitate their plant and “fine-tune” their machines used for the printing of bills.
With new designs and anti-counterfeit features, the NGC makes it easy for cash holders to detect fake bills from the real ones. It was even recognized by the International Association for Currency Affairs (IACA) as one of the finalists for the ‘Best New Banknote Series’ at a Currency Conference last October 2011.
NGC’s Optically Variable Device, a color-changing foil that shows a parrot on the P500 bill and a South Sea Pearl on P1000 bill, also won as the ‘Best New Currency Feature’ at the said conference.
The Philippines is the only country who has this kind of feature in its currency bill.
“As long as money is in circulation, there will always be counterfeiting,” explains Malic.
It is anticipated that through the circulation of the NGC, BSP would be able to safeguard the public from counterfeiting and uphold the integrity of the Philippine banknotes.(PNA)