The Philippines has a wide variety of banknotes throughout its history. One of the intriguing and undervalued banknotes is the Japanese Invasion Money(JIM) introduced by Imperial Japan to the territories they occupied in Southeast Asia during WW2. These JIM are the only currency introduced by Japan during their occupation.
Compared to the Spanish and American Colonial banknotes with numismatic value that don't come cheap today, the Philippine JIM is more readily available at 50 to 100 Pesos or more, depending on the condition.
The first thing I learned when collecting Philippine JIM banknotes is that too many banknotes were printed, which is why we have a lot of collectible Philippine JIM today. During high school, I remember my history teacher discussing the topic of WW2 and mentioning the Philippine JIM banknotes were called "Mickey Mouse Money" because they had no value.
Philippine JIM, first issue - 1942
However, if the Japanese overprint the Philippine JIM, It's perplexing to think that the authorities didn't anticipate the consequences of flooding the market with excessive currency, leading to inflation and the devaluation of the Philippine JIM.
If there is more money in circulation but the same level of demand for goods, the value of the money will drop. This is inflation—when it takes more money to get the same amount of goods and services - IMF, Money at the center of transactions
I find two interesting reasons for the JIM devaluation.
Nobody wanted to use them:
When the Japanese introduced the Philippine JIM banknotes, nobody wanted to use them; this is one more reason it lost its value. The banknotes looked like play money, like the one used in the board game Monopoly that existed during the 1930s. Unlike the Spanish Fuertes and U.S. Silver Certificates, the Philippine JIM doesn't give a payable guarantee to the bearer in silver and gold.
Our forebears resulted in a barter system or preferred to use the Emergency/Guerilla Currency authorized by President Quezon to be created when the Japanese captured Manila and redeemable after the war under RA 369.
Philippine Commonwealth Emergency Money - Samples
Allied Counterfeiting:
The other reason that caused the value of Philippine JIM to drop is because of Gen. Mac Arthur. We all know his famous "I Shall Return" statement; before returning to the Philippines as part of the war effort against Japan, he sent back millions of counterfeited Philippine JIM to destabilize the local economy. This act of economic sabotage caused hyperinflation, causing the value of the Philippine JIM to drop.
When you look at the first issue of Philippine JIM, you will notice similar denominations but with different red block letters. When I first researched the counterfeiting of Philippine JIM, I found out that these block letters were marks put by the Allies to label them as counterfeits. But this is not the case; the red block letters were serial numbers starting with P for the Philippines. Numbers were eventually used as serial numbers on the second Philippine JIM series, except for the 500 and 1000 denominations. The Allies didn't counterfeit all Philippine JIM, only selected denominations with specific block letters.
50-centavo bills: PA, PB, PE, PF, PG, PH and PI
1-peso bills: PH
5-peso bills: PD
10-peso bills: PA, PB, and PC
List of known block letter codes with forgeries - Wikipedia, Japanese government–issued Philippine peso
Where do you think the term "Mickey Mouse Money" came from?
The term "Mickey Mouse Money" is intriguing. This nickname stemmed from the perception that the banknotes were essentially worthless. Still, I've always wondered about the reasoning behind it. While I initially linked it to Walt Disney's paper currency, it's not the case. Disney's paper currency emerged in 1987. I can't find a straight answer for this, but the best explanation is from U.P. Professor Dr. Ricardo T. Jose on the BSP money talk episode Resisting Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse is one of the famous cartoon characters of that time; a cartoon is not real, it's fictitious, a fake like the Philippine JIM.
Philippine JIM, second issue - 1943-45
Do you know if the JIM in your collection is counterfeit?
Not all Philippine JIM are counterfeits. For reference, you can check the website Numismatics, their Philippine JIM catalog includes photos of original and counterfeited Philippine JIM banknotes.
Happy Collecting!
SOURCES:
Wikipedia: Japanese government–issued Philippine peso
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