MANILA – New coins released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas have “serious design flaws” and must be immediately recalled, a party-list lawmaker said.
These coins are “misleading the public” and “causing a lot of confusion,” according to Rep. Jericho Nograles (Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta).
“How many times have you reached into your pocket while inside a cramped jeepney and ended up paying the driver more than you should because you gave him the new P5 coins instead of P1 coins? Probably more than once already,” Nograles said on Wednesday.
He said the coins allow for “innocent mistakes” – like the driver or store cashier not calling a payer’s attention for wrong payment “since they usually just glance at the coin before placing it in their money box.”
According to the lawmaker, the newly designed coins are not easy to distinguish from each other.
“Basic design principles for coinage demand that the denominations are easy to distinguish not just visually but also through touch or tactile differences,” he said. “Our new coins fail in these principles.”
New P1, P5 and P10 have already been released by the BSP for circulation among the general public. They are part of the New Generation Currency Coin Series, which includes redesigned 25-centavo, 5-centavo and 1-centavo coins.
The new coins are a product of more than two years of design study, the BSP claimed. In a YouTube video, the central bank showed the various but subtle design differences of the new coins.
Nograles warned of a “negative economic impact on labor and industry” if the coins continued to circulate.
“It is very clear that the designs initiated during the Aquino administration lacked consultation with any school of the blind,” he said. “Did the BSP even consider jeepney, pedicab, tricycle, and taxi drivers? Did they consider the visually impaired and senior citizens, at all?”
Nograles said the BSP may still suspend the release of the new coins, recall those already released, and redesign them.
“The primary consideration of the BSP was to produce cheaper and stronger coins,” he said. “That’s fine. However, they can at least match the weight, diameter and thickness of the widely circulated coins so people will not be confused and machines will no longer be replaced.”/PN
