The Coins of Poland
In the late Middle Ages, Poland expanded dramatically: at the height of its powers it extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea, encompassing Lithuania, the Ukraine and Belarus, but it declined in the 18th century and between l772 and 1795 it was dismembered by Austria, Russia and Prussia. In 1807, Napoleon reconstituted much of the territory seized by Prussia as the Duchy of Warsaw, which briefly had its own coins portraying Friedrich August of Saxony, whom Napoleon installed as duke [6—7]. The duchy was overrun by Prussia and Russia in 1813 and partitioned between them in ass arrangement ratified by the Congress of Versailles (1815), which also created the tiny republic of Cracow and granted the eastern lands to the Tsar as the so-called Congress Kingdom of Poland. The upheavals of World War I and the downfall of the three empires that had partitioned Poland enabled its reconstitution in 1917—18 as a republic.
THE KINGDOM OF POLAND
The earliest coins emerged in the 12th century and consisted of bracteates [1—2] as well as small denars of a more orthodox appearance, such as the coin minted by Wiadislaw II Wygnaniec [3]. The power and wealth of the medieval kingdom was reflected in the rich diversity of its coinage. This included the first coins with face-to-face portraits since Roman times (Charles I of Hungary and Elizabeth of Poland, 1308) and the coins of Sigismund I featuring the Golden Fleece (1601), after he was admitted as a member of that prestigious imperial order of chivalry. Under Sigismund III Vasa (1587—1632) the coins of Poland reflected Swedish influence, typified by the ort or 6 groschen [4—5).
The designs of the 17th and 18th centuries showed the influence of Germany, Spain and Italy. The coinage was exceedingly complex and included the szostak of 6 groszy and the tympf of 3 szostak, the poltutak of I grosze or 3 poltura, and the gross of 2 poltura or 3 solidi or schillings. Under the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Warsaw the basic unit was the ralara or zloty (from the Polish word for gold) worth 30 groszy, though 6 zlotych made a reichsthaler and S a speciesthaler. The reconstituted kingdom of Poland (1815) rationalized the coinage in 1832 [8—9] and linked it to the Russian system, so that 10 zlotych were worth I rouble and 30 groszy were worth 15 kopeks. Under the Grand Duchy and later kingdoms, coins in copper or silver had an armorial obverse and the value in words, but Tsar, as king of Poland, appeared in profile on the higher silver and gold denominations. After 1841, Polish coinage was suppressed and replaced by Russian currency. A crowned eagle obverse and numeral reverse appeared on coins issued in the districts occupied by Austro-German forces in World War I, based on the marka of 100 fenigow.
FIRST REPUBLIC
Because of postwar inflation and the problems of integrating the mixture of Austrian, German and Russian currencies in different parts of Poland, it was not until 1923 that a unified coinage was introduced, based on the zioty of 100 groszy, with the eagle obverse and value reverse [10]. Certain denominations (20 and 50 groszy) had fixed dates and were even restruck during the Nazi occupation, bearing the original date of 1923 but in zinc and iron instead of bronze or nickel. The silver 2 zlorych dated 1924 was originally minted in Paris but was restruck with a fixed date in Birmingham, Philadelphia and the Royal Mint, London, identified by mint-marks. By contrast, from 1932, 2 zloty coins had their designs changed every two or three years [12—13]. A somewhat similar course was adopted with the large silver 5 zlorych, but this was also used as a commemorative medium, with coins for the centenary of the revolution of 1830 and Pilsudski’s Rifle Corps (1934). A gold 20 zlorych of 1925 portrayed the medieval rulet Boleslaw 1, but this denomination was later reserved for large silver commemoratives.
POLAND RESTORED
The country was invaded from the west by Germany on September 1, 1939, and from the east by the Soviet Union two weeks later. On September 28 Poland was partitioned along the line of the River Bug. In July 1944 the Red Army began to advance into Nazi-held territory and a provisional government was established at Lublin. Postwar Poland lost its eastern provinces to the USSR but was compensated by a substantial part of pre-war Germany. A government of national unity was proclaimed but by 1948 had fallen under communist control.
Coins commenced again in 1949, with a modification of the pre-war types mainly struck in aluminum. The pre-war inscription “Rzeczpospolira Polska” (Polish Republic) continued until 1957 [11, 14], when similar coins with “Ludowa” added to the text belatedly signified the People’s Republic. Coins of 2 and 5 zlotych were added to the series in 1958, also struck in aluminum, but were replaced by brass in 1975 [15], reverting to aluminum in reduced sizes in 1969. Higher values consisted of the cupro-nickel 10 zlotych (1959) [20—21], which went through radically different designs throughout the 1960s [16—19], and 20 zlotych (1973) [22—23]. Both originally had pictorial or symbolic reverses, replaced by plain numerals in 1984. The 10 and 20 zlotych were popular for a wide range of commemoratives, as were the 100 and 200 zlotych (silver) [24—25] and 500, 1000, 2000, 5000 and 10,000 zlorych (gold), although later cupro-nickel [28] and silver were used respectively. Inflation in the 1980s was reflected by astronomical values placed on many of the precious-metal commemoratives, culminating in the massive (lOmm/2ľin) 200,000 zlotych coins of 1989 celebrating the tenth anniversary of the papacy of John Paul II.
Poland again became a free and democratic republic in 1990, reflected in the omission of “Ludowa” from the obverse inscriptions, though by that time the smallest denomination was 50 zlotych. The currency was reformed in January 1995, 10,000 old ziotych being equivalent to one new zloty. Brass (I, 2 and 5 groszy) and cupro-nickel (10 groszy to I zloty) coins appeared with various dates from 1990 [26—27, 29]. Bimetallic zlotych appeared from 1994.