BSP to stop exchanging old peso bills with new ones after June 30

CAN you now spot the difference? Old peso bill (top) new (bottom).

If you still have any of the old peso bills left in your keeping, you have to keep it as a memento or hope that a collector will someday buy them from you as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will no longer exchange these with new ones.

After the June 30 deadline, about P184.3 billion worth of the New Design Series (NDS) bills that first went into circulation in 1985 has been completely demonetized.

These bills — in denominations of P5, P10, P20, P50, P100, P500 and P1,000 — is no longer accepted in transactions starting last Jan. 1, and the BSP will no longer accept them for replacement with the new series of bank notes.

However, Maja Gratia L. Malic, deputy director of the BSP’s currency issue and integrity office, said Filipinos who have recently come from “war-torn countries” can still go to any of the central bank’s 22 branches and offices nationwide and have the old bills replaced.

“They need only to show proof that they did come from these areas — like Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. — such as their passport and relevant travel documents,” Malic said. “They don’t need any pre-registration like other overseas Filipinos.”

She was referring to Filipinos who are working or living abroad, who had until last March 31 — originally until Dec. 31, 2016 only — to register up to P50,000 worth of the NDS to be replaced with new bills.

“They have until Dec. 31 this year to have their old bills replaced,” Malic said. She said that as of Friday, the BSP had committed to replace P30 million worth of NDS bills from these overseas Filipinos did go through the registration process.

The BSP official said the central bank has so far collected 93 percent or a total of about P171 billion of NDS bills, including those from overseas Filipinos.

“These are to be destroyed, shredded and disposed of,” Malic said. “We have been doing so (since the demonetization process kicked in) and we have had haulers take them away to serve as landfill or other useful purposes.”

She said there were also ceramics makers who have got hold of the shredded, previously legal tender to use them as fuel for their facilities.

“Some of these we also use as tokens and souvenirs, either packaged in small packets or stuffed into containers that may serve as paper weights or decorations,” Malic said.

“For those who still have the NDS bills, they probably did so on their own account because they want them for their personal collection or for those who are more serious, collectors with the intention to sell for whatever value they appreciate to,” Malic added.

She said there is about P13 billion worth of the NDS bills “still out there,” either kept intentionally or have been lost or ruined for various reasons — fires, disasters, eaten by insects or disintegrated due to high-impact use.