No centavos (cents) reach the districts of Lepanto and Bontoc from Manila, and for years the Igorot of the copper region of Suyak and Mankayan, Lepanto, have manufactured a counterfeit copper coin called “sipen.”  All the half-dozen copper coins current in the active commercial districts of the Islands are here counterfeited, and the “sipen” passes at the high rate of 80 per peso; it is common and indispensable.  A crude die is made in clay, and has to be made anew for each “sipen” coined.  The counterfeit passes throughout the area, but in Tinglayan, just beyond its eastern border, it is not known.  Within two days farther east small coins are unknown, the peso being the only money value in common knowledge.

Measure of exchange value

The Igorot has as clear a conception of the relative value of two things bartered as has the civilized man when he buys or sells for money.  The value of all things, from a 5-cent block of Mayinit salt to a P70 carabao, is measured in palay.  To-day, as formerly, every bargain between two Igorot is made on the basis of the palay value of the articles bought or sold.  This is so even though the payment is in money.

Standard of value

The standard of value of the palay currency is the sin fing-e’ —­ the Spanish “manojo,” or handful —­ a small bunch of palay tied up immediately below the fruit heads.  It is about one foot long, half head and half straw.  The value of such a standard is not entirely uniform, and yet there is a great uniformity in the size of the sin fing-e’, and all values are satisfactorily taken from it.

Palay currency

An elaborate palay currency has been evolved from the standard, of which the following are the denominations: 

Denomination Number of handfuls

Sin fing-e’
1

Sin i’-ting
5

Chu’-wa i’-ting
10

To-lo’ i’-ting
15

I’-pat i’-ting
20

Pu’-ak or gu’-tad
25

Sin fu tek’
50

Sin fu-tek’ pu’-ak
75

Chu’-wa fu-tek’
100

To-lo’ fu-tek’
150

I’-pat fu-tek’
200

Li-ma’ fu-tek’
250

I-nim’ fu-tek’
300

Pi-to’ fu-tek’
350

Wa-lo’ fu-tek’
400

Si-am’ fu-tek’
450

Sim-po’-o fu-tek’
500

Sin-o’-po
1,000

Trade routes