The piso, often called the peso in English (Philippine English: ˈpɛsɔː , ˈpiː- , plural pesos; piso ˈpiso, pɪˈso; sign: ₱; code: PHP), is the official currency of the Philippines. It is subdivided into 100 sentimo, also called centavos.
The peso has the symbol "₱", introduced during American rule in place of the original peso sign "$" used throughout Spanish America. Alternative symbols used are "PHP", "PhP", "Php", or just "P".
The monetary policy of the Philippines is conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), established on July 3, 1993, as its central bank. It produces the country's banknotes and coins at its Security Plant Complex, which is set to move to New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac.
History of Philippine money
The Philippine peso is derived from the Spanish peso or pieces of eight brought over in large quantities from Spanish America by the Manila galleons of the period from the 16th century to the 19th. From the same Spanish peso or dollar is derived the various pesos of Spanish America, the dollars of the US and Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese yuan and the Japanese yen.
The trade the pre-colonial tribes of what is now the Philippines did among themselves with its many types of pre-Hispanic kingdoms (kedatuans, rajahnates, wangdoms, lakanates and sultanates) and with traders from the neighboring islands was conducted through barter. The inconvenience of barter, however, later led to the use of some objects as a medium of exchange. Gold, which was plentiful in many parts of the islands, invariably found its way into these objects that included the Piloncitos, small bead-like gold bits considered by the local numismatists as the earliest coin of the ancient peoples of the Philippines, and gold barter rings. The original silver currency unit was the rupya or rupiah, brought over by trade with India and Indonesia.
Two native Tagalog words for money which survive today in Filipino were salapi and possibly pera. Salapi is thought to be from isa (one) + rupya which would become lapia when adapted to Tagalog.