Flora and Fauna Series (1983-1990)

In 1983, the Flora and Fauna series coins were first minted and introduced to the public. During my childhood, this was the coinage I grew up to know. The 1, 5, and 10 centavos were made from aluminum and was rarely accepted as currency in small stores so we played with those coins as play money. We called them “kulikak” and until now I have no idea where the term came from and what it really means. In case you know, maybe you can share. The 25 centavo coin, we called “binting”, was the smallest acceptable denomination. The 50 centavo coin was nickel and featured the Philippine Eagle. We called this one “salapi”. I’m not sure, but I think this coin is where the coin toss “tao o ibon” came from. Then there is the iconic “piso”, 1 peso, with the tamaraw. It’s funny because we all thought it was the carabao. I remember the first time I spent 1 peso because I called it “uno” instead of “piso”, which made the tindera laugh. Of course who can forget the unique, decagon shaped, 2 peso coin we call “dos”. This was the highest coin denomination at the time; the five peso was still paper. The last year of minting for this series was in 1990.

In 1991 they reduced the size of the coins, made the 2 peso coin round, but retained the 1, 5, and 10 centavos. This reduced size series was called the Improved Flora and Fauna Series.

My goal was to collect coins from the first minting year, 1983. I am proud to say I have reached this goal. I do keep some coins from different dates, but what is featured here were minted in 1983.

Click on each coin for more info.