THE BANKO Sentral ng Pilipinas has announced the revamps on the five and 20 pesos. The shape of the five peso coin has been changed to a nonagon to make it more distinct and the twenty peso bill has been changed to a coin as well.
Their reason for doing this is to make it more sturdy.
I see their point in doing this since the twenty peso bills are handled a lot due to its small value. No matter how many markets, jeeps or tiangges it will pass through, we won’t have any more torn, crumpled or vandalized money.
It’s silly but even though I know this is a good thing, I feel sad that we won’t be seeing the orange bill with a palm civet at the back. The bill that would so easily be forgotten in our pants and would take for granted since it’s just “pang bakal meryenda.”
Maybe I’m just a little too sentimental, but it shows how much time can change things. I never thought I would witness our money change TWICE in my lifetime, maybe even more.
I wonder if anybody felt this way when the five and ten peso bills were changed to coins. There is just something about losing a familiar sight no matter how mundane it is. It reminds you how time just goes forward and the only thing constant in it is change. Sometimes you have to leave familiar things behind to keep up with its pace.
You know what my consolation is though?
It’s the thought that even if we lose something familiar, it paves the way to a better path. Each new step forward is a development for us.
New things can be intimidating and we may just see the negative at first, but the reason it happened is because there is something to be benefited from it.
So, I’m just letting myself feel sentimental, but I am embracing these changes with open arms. (angelica.panaynews@gmail.com/PN)
