My Money is Burnt, Torn, Vandalized. Can I Still Use It to Pay?

Filipinos can submit torn or burnt peso bills and coins to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for exchange, provided that the extent of damages is covered.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas can take in mutilated notes and bills to replace them with new ones of similar worth. To make a claim, holders of damaged currencies must present the currencies and file an application.

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The BSP covers these bill and coin damages for redemption:

• With at least 60% remaining surface area
• With a portion of the signature of either the President of the Philippines or the BSP Governor
• With intact security thread
• Identifiable and can be easily segregated or counted

Coins up for redemption must be identifiable and can be easily counted.

These simple cases are no longer up for redemption:

Some currencies, notes, and bills may have suffered severe damage due to time or mishandling. Fakes or heavily tampered currencies are also of no value.

In such cases that the BSP deems a bill too damaged or invalid for redemption, the note or coin "shall be withdrawn from circulation and demonetized without compensation to the owner or bearer."

No value

• Less than 60% surface area
• No signature of officials
• Sign of willful or intentional removal of the security thread
• Coins that show signs of any of filing, clipping, or perforation

Demonetized

This category houses old Peso notes no longer in circulation. Any old bills or coins other than New Generation Currency or the BSP Series are not up for redemption.

If you have cash from the 2000s lying around or old money from the vault, you won't get compensated for it anymore.

Specimen

These are genuine Peso banknotes marked with serial numbers bearing six or seven digits that are all “0”. While a legitimate document from the BSP, it's not meant for use and is not redeemable.

Here's how to exchange your damaged Peso bills and coins:

Claims for mutilated banknotes fall under two types: simple and highly technical. Simple cases can be readily resolved by a trained cash handler at a BSP branch, while a highly technical requires an expert opinion and is subject to further examination.

Before heading out to see if you can redeem the worth of your damaged bills, segregate currencies according to the type of claim and bring to the nearest BSP office or branch.

If the extent of damage is covered, you can have it exchanged. Processing takes at least three working days from date of receipt. Highly technical cases are forwarded to the Currency
Issue and Integrity Office in Quezon City, and could take up to 20 working days.

Fill out an application form and submit your claim to the receiving teller.

What about highly technical cases?

Fakes, doubtful currencies, and heavily mutilated bills or notes are classified as highly technical cases. These could be the product of a defective production or printing process with altered security features.

Other times, currencies may be severely damaged due to natural calamities or intentional tampering.

These are classifed as doubtful:

• Questionable Peso notes and coins
• Defective Peso notes
• Foreign banknotes.

These are classified as severely mutilated Peso notes and coins:

• Genuineness, denomination and/or number of pieces cannot be readily and clearly identified

Due to the complex nature of such cases, BSP processing takes longer compared to a simple case, and redemption is not always guaranteed.