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Post by willysx1 on Jul 17, 2012 11:35:19 GMT 8
As a collector of Philippine currency I am trying to find the location of the serial number lists that were made when the currency was burned on Corregidor. The serial numbers were sent by radio to somebody so currency could be replaced after the war. Does anybody know where this list is? Any ideas where to start looking? Any help is greatly appreciated.
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Post by pdh54 on Jul 17, 2012 12:41:06 GMT 8
Willysx1 I found a copy of the St. Petersburg Times dated May 26, 1942 that discusses the burning of the money. It only repeats that the serial numbers were recorded and sent to the Treasury Department. news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19420527&id=XypPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fk0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7137,7610507 Also: In the book I Was on Corregidor by Amea Willoughby, she talks about her husband's job in Manila and his contact with this money and the gold and silver. He was Executive Assistant to the High Commissioner, Mr Francis B. Sayre, in the Finance area. From her description it sounds like her husband was the man in charge of all this stuff, especially on Corregidor. On the thread "Corregidor myths and legends" on this site some of her story has been posted. Read more: corregidor.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=talk&action=display&thread=1002&page=2#ixzz20qprpT9W She says "As soon as we landed. Woody hurried to the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco to confer with the officials about the gold and securities that had been sent from Corregidor." Here is more info I found, but nothing definitive, from the Truman Library oral interview of Bernard Bernstein from 1975 www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/bernsten.htm"Then, of course, the Treasury also had this program that I was telling you about before with respect to the Dutch. When the Japanese began their attack on Pearl Harbor and began landing in the Philippines, I took the program that we had worked up for the Dutch and reformulated it in terms of the Philippines. The program was approved by the administration. We sent Treasury people-flew them right out to the Philippines. I remember going down to the airport in Washington and seeing them off. We put the program into operation. Our people, with the cooperation of the Philippine authorities and the banks in the Philippines, went into the banks, opened the vaults, took out the values, made lists of all the securities, money and [49] other values, prepared affidavits certifying to the contents of the safe deposit boxes and vaults, destroyed the securities and destroyed the money, etc., after making notes of the amounts and serial numbers, etc. Gold and silver were taken to Corregidor and remained there for a while. When it looked like Corregidor would fall we gave to the American authorities in Corregidor instructions to take the gold out by submarine and to consign the silver to Davy Jones. The silver was sunk in the waters off Corregidor and the gold was brought out by submarine. Now, I'm not saying we burned every last dollar's worth of value. We couldn't have accomplished that. But what we did do was to reduce greatly the financial valuables that Japan was able to take. I think the Treasury had a press release on this program at the time and said that this was the first application [50] of the scorched earth policy to financial assets. It worked extraordinarily well. " I am assuming the Fed was the eventual recipient of the serial numbers, or the US Treasury Is there some way to approach the Federal Reserve Bank in San Fransisco (which is where they came back into the US) or the Treasury to see if they have a list? I don't know. but it might be a place to start. Some of the gentlemen on this site who deal with the Freedom of Information Act might be able to steer you to a beginning point. I'm sorry I could not be of more help. You have probably seen this info already and I apologize if this is a waste of time for you.
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Post by okla on Jul 18, 2012 0:17:52 GMT 8
Hey Patty....Speaking of the ditching of the silver into Manila Bay, I am sure you have heard the story of some of the USN "ditchers", tiring of putting the silver Pesos over the side of the barges, amused themselves by "skipping" individual coins off the waters between Fts Mills and Hughes, just as I did with flat rocks on my Grandpappy's farm ponds as a kid. Cheers.
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Post by pdh54 on Jul 18, 2012 3:53:26 GMT 8
Boys will be boys no matter where they are or how old....
stay cool, it is hot here again! Patty
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Post by willysx1 on Jul 21, 2012 11:16:00 GMT 8
Thank You Patty!! I only had part of that info. You gave me some good leads!!!
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Post by pdh54 on Jul 23, 2012 10:10:41 GMT 8
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Post by pdh54 on Jul 29, 2012 8:25:48 GMT 8
From the book “Miss U” by Margaret Utinsky 1948 The Naylor Company San Antonio Texas
page 56
As time went on, we set up a regular banking business to get money for the soldiers. The prisoners themselves helped in these money-making schemes. An organization inside the camp co-operated with the smugglers outside to receive pesos, distribute them where they would do the most good, and acknowledge receipt of all moneys received.
Some of the officers, who had been stationed in Manila, still had accounts in the banks there, and Manila people cashed checks for them to the amount of hundreds of badly needs pesos, while loans were floated on personal notes payable six months after release. Where the prisoners had no checks, they wrote on dirty, torn scraps of paper which were honored without hesitation. At first we smuggled in large denominations, but that proved to be too dangerous and after that we sent one-peso notes. On five cents a day, an enlisted man had no business with anything over a single peso. Even so, the Japanese marveled at the thrift of the Americans who, paid almost nothing, managed to have money to buy fruit and beans.
When I read General Wainwright's moving story, I was reminded that some of the burned money which he mentioned once came into my hands. While the bills were burning, some of them were blown away before they were entirely consumed. The men picked up the pieces and later one fifty-peso bill, a couple of twenties, and several tens and fives were sent out to me. I inquired of Mr. Byron Ford, manager of the Philippine Trust Company, who was interned in Santo Tomas, whether such bills were redeemable and was told that they were if enough of the serial numbers was left to identify them. That was another break for some of the boys. I got the bills cashed and sent the money back in to them.
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I know this doesn't really help you much willysx1, but it is an interesting mention of the burned money after it was burned. It is an explanation of how the money would have made it off Corregidor. I wonder how much was in general circulation by the end of the war. If it was in the hands of the prisoners, then exchanged by people like Miss U at a bank, probably not much was out and about.
Do you know if anyone has every mentioned that fact that maybe their family has some in a box or something somewhere?
Patty
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