THE RARE NOTES OF LANAO PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES

1942 Lanao Agency Emergency Circulating Note

Lanao was a province of the Philippines from 1914 until 1959 when it was divided into the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur. It is located in the west central part of the sprawling island of Mindanao. The capital was Dansalan (presently known as Marawi City).

Late in January 1942, President Quezon authorized the formation of the Lanao Currency Committee. The amount to be printed was to be up to two-thirds of the province’s unencumbered bank deposits. The committee consisted of Provincial Treasurer Pedro Encarnacion as chairman, with Provincial Auditor Fortunato Alabagan and Provincial Fiscal Francisco A. Obach as members. Notes bear the three signatures, but the Provincial Fiscal was replaced for some reason and the title of Act-g. Provincial Fiscal appears instead.

Printing ended in March when the first Mindanao Emergency Currency Board began printing paper money for the entire Mindanao area. No information as to amount printed for the Lanao committee is available as the records were all destroyed during the war. Sometime later Encarnacion estimated that about 80,000 pesos in face value had been issued.

Denominations reported to have been printed are 20 centavos, 50 centavos, one, five, 10 and 20 pesos. This list was incomplete as it omits the two pesos; also, the five, 10 and 20 pesos are not verified. No examples of those values are represented in any known collection.

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