The Philippine central bank said these are not new banknotes circulated in the Philippines

The photo was published on Facebook here on January 23, 2020.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post, which has been shared more than 1,500 times:

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Screenshot of Facebook post

The image shows the front and back sides of six purported new Philippine banknotes in 5,000, 1,000, 500, 200, 100 and 50-peso denominations.

The top of the photo contains text which reads: “New Generation Currency II / (Inpoved Design) [sic] / Launch in 2020”.

The bottom of the photo shows the logo, name and website of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippines’ central bank. 

The post’s caption reads: “The New Currency release this 2020…”

The same image was also shared here and here on Facebook; and here on Twitter alongside a similar claim. 

A similar photo showing only the front sides of some of the purported new banknotes was also shared on Facebook here with a similar claim.

The claim is false. The BSP, which maintains the sole legal authority to issue currency in the country, confirmed to AFP that the photo is a hoax.

“The images and information on Philippine currency posted in the said fake Facebook page are false,” the BSP said in an email on January 31, 2020.

The bank also released an advisory regarding the false photo on January 23, 2020 on its Facebook and Twitter pages.

Below is an image of the BSP advisory:

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Screenshot of advisory

The advisory states the images purporting to show new Philippine bills “are clearly inconsistent with the features of genuine Philippine banknotes.”

Example photos of current Philippine banknotes were published on this central bank website page.

Below is a screenshot of banknotes in circulation, in 1,000, 500, 200, 100, 50 and 20-peso denominations:

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Screenshot of BSP page

Rappler, an online media organization in the Philippines, also fact-checked the same hoax photo.