MANILA - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Wednesday warned the public against online sellers advertising Brilliant Uncirculated P20 coins for sale.

"The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) advises the public that it has not issued Brilliant Uncirculated 20-Piso coins," the BSP said in an advisory.

The BSP said it has released the new P20 New Generation Currency (NGC) circulation coins to the public last December 2019 which is a legal tender and can be used to purchase goods at face value.

As of end August, 2.09 million pieces of the P20 NGC amounting to P41.85 million are in circulation, the central bank said.

A quick search on a popular online selling platform showed a "20 Piso 2019 New Generation Currency (Brilliant Uncirculated)" coin selling for P100 per piece.

In a statement, Lazada Philippines said it has removed the "Brilliant Uncirculated P20 coins" from the platform following the advisory from the BSP.

"Our team does a daily manual sweep of product listings that violate existing policies and are removed when identified. We will continue to take strong action against sellers found breaching our platform's terms and conditions," Lazada told ABS-CBN News.

The P20 coin is also the most used denomination for payments in the country, the BSP earlier said. The P20 coin released in 2019 would replace the banknote form of the currency, it said.

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