1 Piso Pope Paul VI, nickel

Issued to commemorate Pope Paul VI's visit to Manila in November 1970 — the first papal visit to Asia — this coin was struck in the same year Ferdinand Marcos declared his campaign for a second presidential term, a political atmosphere the Church watched with considerable unease. Paul VI's trip also included a near-fatal knife attack at Manila International Airport, where Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza y Amor lunged at him with a kriss dagger concealed beneath a cassock. The Pope was uninjured, but the incident made international headlines within hours of his arrival.