Location
Lat 16° 4' 13N Long 120° 45' 45E San Nicolas is an inland town at an elevation of 246' / 74m in the 6th District of Pangasinan Province on Luzon in the Philippines. To the west is San Manuel. To the east is Santa Maria and the start of the Villa Verde Trail. The road at this location connects southward to Manila.
Wartime History
During late 1944 or early January 1945 the Japanese Army used trucks to transported crates of silver Peso coins from the Philippine Treasury and banks in Manila northward into the mountains in hopes of depriving the Allies from using the currency. For unknown reasons, likely because of American air power attacking trucks on roads on Luzon, the crates of coins were unloaded at San Nicolas and buried to hide them in hopes of recovering at a later date.
During late January 1945, liberated by
the U.S. Army 32nd Infantry Division and began finding coins in a large shell hole and stopped advancing to dig for more and began to pocked as many coins as possible. When the find was reported and personnel from the 201st Counter Intelligence Corp (201st CIC) arrived to to secure the coins and dug up the rest of the coins that filled three trucks. Later, these Pesos were returned to the Philippine Treasury.
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Last Updated
October 23, 2019
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