The “Mickey Mouse Money” During World War II in the Philippines, the occupying Japanese issues a fiat money, a government-issued currency that is not backed by a commodity such as gold and it’s the government that decrees its value. The Japanese-Philippine currency was derisively termed “Mickey Mouse Money” by the Filipinos- an obvious reference to their contempt for the Japanese occupation. The size and format of the smaller denominations is very similar to other occupation currencies made by t