Long before banknotes or Spanish coins arrived in the archipelago, Filipinos used gold in dozens of practical and symbolic ways: ornament, status, dowry — and currency. Among the most striking pieces of that pre-colonial monetary world are the barter rings (often called panika): ring-shaped gold ingots, sometimes as chunky as a small doughnut, that circulated alongside tiny conical “piloncitos” as a medium of exchange across the islands.  What were barter rings? Barter rings are penannular gold pieces — a circular band with a small gap — that archaeological finds and museum displays show were used in trade, dowries and as visible markers of rank among the kadatuan (the nobility). They vary enormously in size and weight: some are tiny and light, others are truly massive (examples recorded in museum and exhibition notes weigh well over 100 grams). Barter rings and piloncitos functioned in a precious-metal economy where value was determined largely by weight and purity rather than an ...

Imagine losing a tooth and — instead of getting an implant, bridge, or denture — your body simply grows a new one. That idea is moving out of science fiction and into real-world research, thanks to a string of discoveries and early human testing taking place in Japan. The story combines decades of developmental-biology research with a clever molecular trick: neutralize a natural brake on tooth formation and let dormant tooth buds complete their program. Early results are promising, but the route from lab success to routine dental treatment will still take careful testing and time. What scientists discovered Researchers identified a protein called USAG-1 (uterine sensitization-associated gene-1) that acts as a molecular inhibitor of tooth development. In animals that naturally fail to form some teeth (or have developmental arrest of tooth buds), blocking USAG-1 with a monoclonal antibody allowed teeth to develop where none had formed before. In effect, the treatment “woke up” tooth-form...

The highly-anticipated return of the iconic nameplate Toyota Tamaraw in the Philippines has now arrived with its latest incarnation: the Next Generation Tamaraw. This vehicle marks a new chapter for Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation (TMP) as it seeks to rekindle the legacy of a name once deeply familiar to Filipino drivers, while catering to modern business and personal mobility needs. A comeback rooted in heritage and purpose The original Tamaraw name was an everyday sight in the Philippines—known for its ruggedness, utility, and versatility. With the Next Generation Tamaraw, Toyota Philippines is aiming not just to revive a brand, but to reinvent it. According to TMP, the vehicle is designed as a “multi-purpose people and goods mover” built for the evolving demands of Filipino businesses and everyday owners.  TMP unveiled the Next Generation Tamaraw on December 6, 2024 via a simultaneous nationwide launch across eight locations including Makati, Quezon City, Santa Rosa (Laguna...

Part I    Piloncitos Part II    Barter Rings Part III    Alfonso Coin Part IV    Two-Centavo Copper Coin Part V    1906 S This is Part VI of our Philippine Money series. All earlier Parts are linked above. This Part is all about the Japanese occupation in the Philippines during and after the 2nd World War which lasted three years, from 1942 to 1945. After the American Regime in the Philippines from 1900-1941, there goes the 2nd World War. One of the Invaders which plays a great role in that Battle, are the Japanese.  The Commonwealth of the Philippines was attacked by the Empire of Japan on December 8, 1941, nine hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor (the Philippines is on the Asian side of the international date line). The United States of America controlled the Philippines at the time and possessed important military bases there. The combined American-Filipino army was defeated in the Battle of Bataan and the Battle of Corregido...

Part I      Piloncitos Part II    Barter Rings Part III    Alfonso Coin Part IV    Two-Centavo Copper Coin This is Part V of our Philippine Money series, all Parts prior to this are linked above. When the Americans occupy the Philippines defeating the Spaniards on 1898, and after the Americans inhibited and banned Aguinaldo to print his own Coins, they released those new form of currency and the United States coins were introduced. This era on our currency is called the American Period and it happens from 1900 to 1941, just before the Peak of the Second World War. In 1903 and 1904, the US mint at Philadelphia struck bronze-minted half centavo coins for circulation. Eventually, the coin was withdrawn from circulation because it was rejected by Filipinos for its low value. Following the Spanish-American War, the United States gained control of the Philippine Islands under the 1898 Treaty of Paris. In 1903, the Philadelphia Mint began making coi...

Part I        Piloncitos Part II       Barter Rings Part III      Alfonso Coin This is Part IV of our Philippine Money Series. Earlier Parts are linked above. We will call this Era of our currency The Revolutionary Period. Before we discuss anything about our Money system during the Revolutionary Period, you should learn that the Philippines is under the Ruling of the Spaniards from 1565 to 1898, as the Colonization starts with the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi's expedition on 13th of February. Then it all ended when America defeated Spain on "The Great American War". Of course, the Philippines then became a territory of the United States. Emilio Aguinaldo When the U.S. declared war on Spain, Emilio Aguinaldo saw a possibility that the Philippines might achieve its independence; the U.S. hoped instead that Aguinaldo would lend his troops to its effort against Spain. He returned to Manila on May 19, 1898 and declared Philippine indep...

Part I Piloncitos Part II      Barter Rings OK, we have discussed about Ingots, Piloncitos and Barter Rings, those were our Money here in the Philippines while in our infamous Galleon Trade during the Pre-Hispanic era or during before the 1500s. Before we are being discovered by Ferdinand Magellan, so as our History says.  This is Part III of our Philippine Money series, Parts I and II are linked above. Now, let's see what kind of Money we have used during the Hispanic Era, this happens from 1521-1897, after all, a Portuguese Navigator named Ferdinand Magellan discovered our country on March 16, 1521. Macuquinas 1739 Dos Mundos The cobs or macuquinas of colonial mints were the earliest coins brought in by the galleons from Mexico and other Spanish colonies.  These silver coins usually bore a cross on one side and the Spanish royal coat-of-arms on the other. The Spanish dos mundos were circulated extensively not only in the Philippines but the world over from...

Part I    Piloncitos This is Part II of our Philippine Money series, and Part I is linked above.  We have started talking about Philippine money and within that list, one of the probably, oldest system of them all is, The Barter Rings. According to the Central Bank of the Philippines, the trade among the early Filipinos and with traders from the neighboring islands was conducted through barter. The inconvenience of barter later led to the use of some objects as medium of exchange. Gold, which was plentiful in many parts of the islands, invariably found its way into these objects that included the Piloncitos, small bead-like gold bits considered by the local numismatists as the earliest coin of the ancient Filipinos, and gold barter rings. During the early times of the Galleon Trade or the infamous "Kalakalang Galyon", the earliest Filipinos traded with gold ring-like ingots, very similar to the first coins invented in the Kingdom of Lydia in present day Turkey. These bart...

When we talk about the kind of monetary system in the Philippines, one of probably the oldest kind are the Piloncitos. Piloncitos or also known as Bulawan, are tiny engraved gold coins or weights found in the country from the Archaic period or the pre-Hispanic era. We have taught by our beloved teachers about the Barter during those times. It is the way trade among the early Filipinos and with traders from neighboring islands was conducted. The inconvenience of barter later led to the use of some objects as a medium of exchange. Gold, which was plentiful in many parts of the islands, invariably found its way into these objects that included the Piloncitos, small bead-like gold bits considered by the local numismatists as the earliest coin of ancient Filipinos, and gold barter rings. The word is derived from Spanish "Piloncitos", meaning "little weights." Piloncitos is presumably an offshoot of the silver and may have evolved into the bullet or Pod duang coinage of S...

When we talk about Philippine Coins, there’s always discussions about commemorative coin issued by The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas or Central Bank of the Philippines. For every list, there’s always common, the number one. Talking about the first commemorative coin of the Philippines will bring us way back to Pre 1980’s, particularly the 1940’s, when the first Commemorative Coin was minted. The theme was the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese by General Douglas MacArthur. After the granting of independence to the Philippines in 1946, no coins were minted for the Philippine Republic until 1958, other than a small silver commemorative issue in 1947 to honor General Douglas MacArthur. Totals of 200,000 50 centavos and 100,000 one-peso coins were minted with the general's image on the obverse and the national coat-of-arms on the reverse. Struck at the San Francisco Mint, they carry the "S" mintmark below the date. This commemorative Silver peso to honor Gen...

Every Olympics event, we sent our chosen one’s to represent our country. Along with them is our pride, hopes and prayers that one of them might bring home the long waited medal, might it be Bronze, Silver or of course, the very-long-waited GOLD. The Rio Olympics is still on going as of this writing, and one great Filipino athlete have given the Philippines a great honor, a Silver Medal. Hidilyn Diaz finished with a lift of 200kg at the women’s 53kg category in weightlifting on Monday, August 8, 2016. Since Onyok Velasco’s triumph at the 1996 games in Atlanta, we sure have hoped a Gold on that one, well, Diaz’ silver medal is the country’s first. “Ginawa ko yung best para sa country," Diaz told CNN Philippines. "Yun lang talaga yung goal, tapos mag medal. Bronze lang talaga yung aim namin ng coach ko.” Initially thought to be a two-horse race between Chinese-Taipei’s Hsu Shu-Ching and China’s Li Yajun, the rest of the field was seen to be competing for the bronz...

In a modern world, an animal is just an animal to most of us. Though research says that snakes have their set of legs before, say around  100 million years ago. According to Wiki, by definition, SNAKES are elongated, LEGLESS, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Snakes are ectothermic, like all squamates,  amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Except Antarctica, living snakes are found on every continent, and ...

Peso, Rupee, The Famous Dollar, Dinar, Yen, whatever you call your money it’s only purpose is to purchase, a mean of exchanging anything of value… You can purchase anything nowadays, even in the internet, though what you'll always need is money. Throughout history, money has always existed in various forms. We are not suggesting that your country should revert to these methods, but here are some interesting commodity monies that have been used in the past. Gold Gold is the most common type of commodity money and the most easily understood as well, even by people who have no understanding of economics. Throughout history, gold has always held value. Interestingly, the US dollar was held against “The Gold Standard” in the past where its value was literally measured against the gold reserves USA had. There are some properties of gold that make it suitable as commodity money. Firstly, you are able to store it for a really long time without worrying if it will r...

Have you ever wondered how accurate our time monitoring is? It has been a millennia since the invention of clocks. According to Wiki, the clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to consistently measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units: the day, the lunar month, and the year. Devices operating on several physical processes have been used thousands of years ago. A sundial shows the time by displaying the position of a shadow on a flat surface. There are a range of duration timers, a well-known example being the hourglass. Water clocks, along with the sundials, are possibly the oldest time-measuring instruments. A major advance occurred in Europe around 1300 with the invention of the escapement, which allowed construction of the first mechanical clocks, which used oscillating timekeepers like balance wheels. During the 15th century, Spring-driven clocks appeared. Then clockmaking flourished during the 15th and 16th centuries. The next development in...