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MULTIPLE IDENTITIES VIA SPIRITUALITY, HISTORIES AND CULTURAL RE-PRESENTATIONS 165MUKHANG PERA: Banknotes and nation.Ambeth R. OcampoIntroductionMukhang pera is a title I owe to the witty API FellowNick de Ocampo who coined it effortlessly when I wasexplaining my research project. The phrase literallymeans “looks like money” but in everyday Filipinoconversation, it carries a double meaning: the positivemeaning refers to the faces or portraits engraved onbanknotes; the negative connotation refers to a greedyperson, someone who figuratively “looks like money”.All round the world people deal with banknoteseveryday; these are so common we tend to take themfor granted. We see and exchange banknotes butseldom notice the details in them that tell a storysignificant to the country that issued the notes and thepeople who use them. Almost all banknotes haveportraits of people on them, how and why did they getthere?My API research project began from my involvementas historical adviser to the Numismatic Committee ofthe Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of thePhilippines) from 2002-2011. The most significantwork of this committee was to finalize and recommendto the BSP Monetary Board the designs and securityfeatures that would go into the “New GenerationCurrency” (NGC) that was issued in December 2010.Being the only person on the committee notconnected with the Central Bank, the meetingsprovided an introduction to the arcane world ofbanknotes, especially the complex design elements andtechnical requirements considered primarily to detercounterfeiting. A historian was called into thecommittee to provide inputs on the historicalpersonalities on the face of the banknotes, as well as thehistorical events and icons printed on the reverse.Aside from aesthetic or artistic considerations, theseimages were chosen as a proud display of the historyand culture of the Philippines. The images integral tothe banknotes were meant to evoke pride, images thatwere an expression of nation.After almost a decade with the BSP NumismaticCommittee, I have never looked at banknotes the sameway again. Armed with this unique experience and areferral from BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Gunigundoto his counterparts I embarked on my researchfellowship to study the banknotes of countriesparticipating in the Asian Public Intellectual program:Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia to see if theirdesigns were also an expression of nation andnationhood. To this end, I was based: in Kyoto fromOctober- November 2010; Bangkok, December 2010-February 2011; Jakarta, February-April 2011; andKuala Lumpur, April-June 2011.Why banknotes?In its earliest form, money began as barter for goods,often food or the exchange of physical objects ofequivalent value. Before the use of precious metals likegold and silver, monetary value was reckoned in staplefoods like rice in China or Japan or grain in Egypt andMesopotamia. One of the earliest coins, the drachma,was based on the weight of grain and one of the earliestpaper money in Japan, the koku, was based on riceeither in storage or even in expected yield, an earlyexample of futures trading. As societies became morecomplex, other inedible products were also givenexchange value: pearls and cowrie shell from the sea,and finally processed precious metals from the earthlike gold and silver or copper and bronze.While coins came before paper money and were moredurable, these were physically more difficult totransport in large quantities, thus individuals, banks,and governments started to issue paper as a promise topay a given sum with equivalent value in gold or silver.This made transactions easier, safer, and morelightweight. While some form of paper money wasused in ancient China to address the shortage of coinscirca 960 AD, the acknowledged first banknote inhistory is dated to Ming China in 1375. Sheets ofpaper made from the mulberry tree, the size of an A4sheet today, were printed to be exchanged for 1,000coins printed on the banknote. When you realize thatthis piece of paper was worth three kilos of coins, youwould understand the advance and practical use ofpaper money. In the West, the earliest banknote wasissued in the 17 th century; in Sweden in 1660, and bythe Bank of England in 1694.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows