Posted by gmygotravel
In the Philippines, coins of 1, 5, 10, and 25 centavos (officially called sentimo), and 1, 5 and 10 pesos (officially piso) are in use. All older coins have been demonetized, and cannot be used anymore.
You will probably never see the one centavo coin for real, as they are very difficult to find (slightly over 18 million have been made, that is less than one for every four Filipinos), and also pretty useless, due to their low value. The five-centavo coin is exactly the same size as the one-centavo coin, but actually has less metal, due to the hole.
This coin is also not very useful, and sometimes seen as decoration on key-rings, or used as emergency washers. The the smallest coin you'll actually find in common use is the twenty-five centavo coin. The one peso coin, most common of all, depicts the national hero José Rizal, and the five peso coin freedom fighter Emilio Aguinaldo.
The bimetallic ten peso coin was introduced in 2000, and is not yet (in 2005) in wide circulation, although it is getting more common, and I have seen the first vending machines accepting it. This coin shows the freedom fighters Apolinario Mabini and Andres Bonifacio.
Note that the same heroes also appeared on the (former) bank notes of the same value.
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