Philippine real

Trade among the early Filipinos and with traders from the neighboring islands was conducted through barter. The inconvenience of barter later led to the use of some objects as a medium of exchange. Gold, which was plentiful in many parts of the islands, invariably found its way into these objects that included the piloncitos, small bead-like gold bits considered by the local numismatists as the earliest coin of the ancient Filipinos, and gold barter rings.

Silver columnario peso or 8 reales imported from Spanish Latin America 1726-1770.

Spanish-American coins minted to the currency system of 8 reales = 1 peso were brought over by the Manila galleons between the 16th and 19th centuries. The first coins brought over were odd-shaped silver cobs called macuquinas or hilis-kalamay. They were then succeeded starting 1726 by the famous columnarios (silver pillar dollars) or dos mundos.

These were then replaced by coins from newly independent Latin American countries in the 19th century, whose designs were counter-stamped in the 1830s by Spanish authorities in Manila. The final change involved revising the peso's subdivision from 1 peso = 8 reales to 1 peso = 100 centimos, made possible by the introduction of new 10, 20 and 50 centimos de peso coins starting 1864.[1]