Philippine E-Journals

Minting meanings: Comparative analysis of old and new Philippine coinage imagery designs in communicating national identity and culture

Adrian Lawrence Carvajal

 

Abstract:

Researches on money brimmed on its customary functions. These functions are: (1) medium of exchange, (2) unit of account; (3) standard of deferred payments and (4) store of value. In medium exchange, money can be used for buying and selling goods and services. In unit of account, money is the common standard for measuring relative worth of goods and services. In store of value, money’s value can be retained over time and it’s a convenient way to store wealth. Lastly, in standard of deffered payments, money is an accepted way to settle a debt. However, there is a manifest scarcity of research on fiat money as an instrument of communication or media conveying significances and meanings of an issuing country as a fifth function. This study supplements the seminal work of the researcher on the Philippine bank notes that money can be a medium of mass communication for legitimation and authority, and for communicating national identity and culture (Carvajal, 2016). This study probed further this fifth function in the new Philippine coins currently under circulation which is known as the New Generation Currency series, particularly its imagery design and significance in conveying Filipino identity and culture and compare the same with old Philippine coinage, particularly that of the BSP series.