By Kenneth J. Berger
When the Pacific War broke out in the Philippines on 8 December 1941(which
was, because of the International Date Line, 7 December 1941 in Hawaii), Julian
Jumalon was working as an artist, painting landscapes in oil, operating an airbrush
portraiture business, and conducting a small drawing class. On December 29,
the Philippine National Bank (PNB) in Cebu received a telegram from Philippine
President Manuel L. Quezon authorizing creation of the Cebu Currency Committee
and the printing of emergency paper money to help finance the war effort. The
committee was chaired by Simeon C. Miranda, acting manager of the PNB/Cebu Branch;
Provincial Fiscal (Attorney General) Feliberto Imperial Reyes and Provincial
Auditor Roman T. del Bando were committee members.
Meeting that same afternoon, the committee summoned Jumalon, who, being a deputy air-raid warden, was still in the city. Jumalon's arrival was met with a question from Miranda: "Did you ever design money?" Somewhat shaken, Jumalon replied, "No sir, I have never forged any money." Allaying the artist's fears, Miranda explained that the committee wanted him to design emergency notes and showed him the telegram from President Quezon, as well as examples of the 10-, 20- and 50-centavo emergency circulating notes of 1917. Interestingly, Jumalon remembered these notes from his childhood in Zamboanga, where they were called "Meliciano" money (after the melicianos, or militia recruits).
The committee asked Jumalon first to design a 1-peso note with the creation
of 5, 10, 20 and 50 centavos to follow. This plan was set aside however because
of the pressing need for money to pay salaries and other necessary expenditures.
Instead, the 2-, 5-, 10- and 20-peso notes were produced next. In total, Jumalon
completed 18 designs (one for each side of nine denominations) in January 1942.
However, at present the 2 peso is unknown in collections and, therefore, not
listed in references.
Interestingly, Jumalon recalled that Miranda bought the notes of each Denomination-bearing
serial numbers from 1 to 100 for his personal collection, which was lost during
the war. Thus, it should be practically impossible for collectors to obtain
low serial numbers of Cebu's emergency circulating notes of 1941.
Augustin Ramirez engraved the plates for the Imperial Engraving Plant in Cebu City, which was owned by the Clavano family. The Visayan Press, owned by Isabelo Binamira (later a Congressman from Cebu), was contracted to print the notes. When the designs were complete and printing ready to commence, Jumalon was assigned to direct color mixing and to examine the printed sheets for deficiencies. Together with the printing firms employees, he also was to witness the burning of condemned notes. These condemned notes were not serially numbered, since numbers were printed only on sheets deemed acceptable.
The notes were printed on Hammermill Ledger Bond paper supplied by the Photo Materials Company and the Menzi Paper Company. The Photo Materials Company also cut and separated the notes. To speed production, the notes were printed in blocks of 10 cuts per denomination. In mid February 1942, this paper supply was exhausted and the printing stopped.
The next batch of paper was supplied by Bais Sugar Central of Negros Occidental. It was manufactured from sugar cane bagaso ("waste") mixed with paper pulp. White Bais paper watermarked with parallel lines was used for the larger denominations, while the smaller denominations were printed on coarse, yellow paper.
The Cebu Emergency Currency Board (CECB) was created on 1 March 1942, with
Acting Provincial Auditor Roman T. del Bando as chairman; Acting Provincial
Treasurer Pedro Elizalde and Cebu City Treasurer Rosalio D. Macrohon were committee
members. By CECB authority, Jumalon designed treasury emergency currency certificates.
Although only 5-, 10- and 20-peso notes are now known, according to Jumalon's
diary he also created 5-, 10-, 20- and 50-centavo and 1- and 2-peso notes. This
agrees with a comment in Neil Shafer‚s Philippine Emergency and Guerrilla
Currency of World War II that "there was a Œcomplete series‚
for the 1942 issue" and with Albert Pick‚s Standard Catalog of World
Paper Money, which states that "[c]entavo notes were planned but never
got past the design stage .
. . [and] . . . no 2 Pesos notes had been completely printed."
Because of time constraints, the smaller denominations of 1941 Iloilo emergency circulating notes and 1942 Mindanao treasury emergency currency certificates bear certain resemblances to Cebu's 1941 and 1942 emissions, respectively. During the printing of Cebu's emergency circulating notes of 1941, a delegation from Iloilo led by Captain Cook requested designs and plates for small-denomination emergency currency. Since Jumalon was too busy at the time to work on new notes specifically for Iloilo, a compromise was reached. The names of the signatories, places, dates, etc., were superimposed on the Cebu designs. Mindanao's 1942 treasury emergency currency certificates were made in a similar manner; the plates were completed by Ramirez.
Although this agrees with Shafer's statement that "various notes of the
first and second Cebu emissions served as models for some of the [other provincial]
emergency notes," it does not confirm his statements that it was an "attempt
at standardization" and that a "serious attempt at standardization
of designs with those of Cebu is evident." According to Jumalon, there
was no known intention of preparing a similar design for the neighboring areas,
and, as the notes' designer, he would have known
of the slightest hint of such intent.
It was also during the printing of either the 1941 or 1942 Cebu notes that
the press ran out of ink. Professor Balce of the University of the Philippines
Chemistry Department was called in to produce a substitute ink. Balce's attempt
being unsuccessful, Jumalon recommended painters‚ refined tinting colors.
However, since all the hardware stores had closed up shop, Captain Cook‚s
assistance was requested. With the help of soldiers wielding axes, two hardware
stores were opened and tinting
colors, retarders and fast driers obtained. With these supplies, Professor Balce
was able to produce ink of the correct consistency.
After the completion of the designs for the CECB, which were printed by either the Visayan Press or the Barba Press, a delegation arrived from Negros Occidental with a request for note designs and plates. Not being as rushed this time, Jumalon was able to create original designs, and, once again, Ramirez produced the plates. Jumalon remembers that he designed a complete set of nine notes, with denominations from 5 centavos to 20 pesos. However, as with Cebu‚s 2-peso emergency circulating note of 1941, no 20-peso note for this issue is listed in numismatic references.
Some time later, another Negros delegation asked for more artistic, more imposing and superior designs for nine denominations. Jumalon collaborated with Oscar Figuracion, a commercial artist and oil painter, to accomplish the task. At the time, both artists performed their work at the Imperial Engraving Plant. Jumalon began by designing a 10-peso note featuring a Mount Mayon volcano landscape, while Figuracion created a 20 pesos showing President Quezon wearing boots and planting rice. By the second night, 9 April 1942, the designs were ready and engraving had started, but the announcement of Bataan's surrender put a stop to everything.
All parties involved in the production of emergency currency were instructed to proceed to the grounds of the capitol to witness, together with the military, the burning of approximately 3 million pesos that had been scheduled for distribution the following day. Because of strafing by enemy planes, Jumalon was unable to reach the capitol grounds. After Cebu was liberated by the Americans, a representative of one of the notes‚ signatories informed Jumalon that several people looted the burning pile of currency, salvaging unburned bundles of 10- and 20-peso notes.
Later, in 1943, Jumalon was ordered to appear at a secret guerrilla hideout on the outskirts of Carcar, a town in Cebu. Told of a plan to print guerrilla money to augment the notes in circulation, he insisted that authorization first be obtained from the exiled government. Accordingly, Jumalon was told to await further instructions, but he was never contacted again.
In 1944 Jumalon‚s family was evacuated to Ormoc in Leyte,where he joined Brigadier General Blas Miranda‚s Western Leyte Guerrillas as intelligence officer with the rank of second lieutenant. He was later captured by the Japanese military police, but managed to escape soon afterward.
Following the war, Jumalon learned that emergency currency notes bearing his design were secretly printed at a mountain hideout in a Cebuan town. No details as to design, press, denominations, paper or quantity are known. Jumalon also has seen a counterfeit of the 1941 Cebu 20-peso emergency circulating note, produced as a pen-and-ink drawing and colored to match. Also, he is aware of a counterfeit 50-centavo note of the same issue, created with a finely carved rubber stamp on manila paper treated with a "Joebrush" dye to simulate the Bais yellow-colored paper.
Although Jumalon was able to keep his preliminary currency sketches for many years after the war, they were attacked by termites and eventually discarded. He never received full payment for his services at the printer‚s or for the Cebu and Negros Occidental designs (they were considered pre-war, or Commonwealth, obligations).
He was not bitter about this, however, and stated "It was a worthy adventure --- an honor to serve [my country], while all [the other] printers were safe in the mountains with their families." After the war, he held positions at the University of San Carlos and the University of the Philippines/Cebu. Later, he operated a butterfly sanctuary and an art gallery of mosaics made from butterfly and moth wings in Basak, Cebu City. Sadly, Prof. Jumalon passed away on 26 June 2000.
Addendum:
During my meetings with Prof. Jumalon, he graciously autographed for me a number of the notes he designed; these are now a treasured part of my collection. But the best was still yet to come. When I saw Prof. Jumalon for the last time, he showed me two incompletely printed copies of the 1-peso CEBU 1941 Philippine National Bank Emergency Circulating Note which he had salvaged from the condemned sheets. One had both the front & back printed but without serial numbers since they were applied last; the other only had the front printed with the back still blank. He said that he planned to donate one of the notes to the Cebu City Museum but that he would first like me to pick the one I wanted. I picked the second note and this note, I am pleased to say, is now also a very treasured part of my collection.
Sources
del Bando, R.T. Letter to Julian Jumalon, February 5, 1946.
Jumalon, Julian N. Personal conversations, June 1991 through May 1992.
Miranda, Simeon. Letter "To Whom It May Concern," September 11, 1946.
Pick, Albert. Standard Catalog of World Paper Money. Vol. I, 6th ed.
lola, WI:
Krause Publications, 1990, p. 800.
Shafer, Neil. Philippine Emergency and Guerrilla Currency of World War
II. Racine, WI: Western Publishing Company, 1974, pp. 73, 76, 98.
World War II Emergency Currency Notes
Designed by Julian Jumalon
CEBU
1941 Philippine National Bank Emergency Circulating Notes
5 centavos
10 centavos
20 centavos
50 centavos
1 peso
2 pesos (unlisted)
5 pesos
10 pesos
20 pesos
1942 Treasury Emergency Currency Certificates
5 centavos (unlisted)
10 centavos (unlisted)
20 centavos (unlisted)
50 centavos (unlisted)
1 peso (unlisted)
2 pesos (unlisted)
5 pesos
10 pesos
20 pesos
ILOILO
1941 Philippine National Bank Emergency Circulating Notes
5 centavos
10 centavos
20 centavos
50 centavos
MINDANAO
1942 Treasury Emergency Currency Certificates
2 pesos
5 pesos
10 pesos
20 pesos
NEGROS OCCIDENTAL
1942 Emergency Circulating Notes
5 centavos
10 centavos
20 centavos
50 centavos
1 peso
2 pesos
5 pesos
10 pesos
20 pesos (unlisted)