World coins chat: Poland

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Poland is a country in Central Europe bordering Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and the Russian Kaliningrad exclave. It also borders the Baltic Sea. Poland has a population of 38.5 million.

History
The history of Poland dates back to 966, when ruler Mieszko I was christianised and ruled over an area which corresponds roughly to present-day borders. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025. A personal union with Lithuania was established in 1386 when Polish female king Jadwiga married Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila or Jagiełło in Polish. In 1569 the Union of Lublin established the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (PLC). The PLC was one of the largest states in Europe and had a relatively modern constitution, with a parliament (Sejm) and a king elected from noblemen.


Kingdom of Poland in the 10th century. Dark pink was Polish territory from 966, lighter pink acquisitions until 1025.

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795)
The PLC was a multi-national state where the Polish majority was the most powerful, but where German and Jewish minorities thrived in trading and Russian and Ukrainian serfs found relative freedom. The Commonwealth was composed of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, together with free cities such as Gdansk/Danzig, Torunn/Thorn, Elblag/Elbing and Riga. The Duchy of Courland and the Duchy of Prussia also formed part of the PLC, though the latter was lost to Brandenburg in 1657, formalising German presence in East Prussia that would last until 1945.


Map of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569)

The PLC reached its apex in 1683, when King Jan III Sobieski was victorious in the Battle of Vienna which halted the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. In the 18th century, the PLC fell prey to internal divisions (every nobleman in the Sejm had veto power which made them susceptible to bribe) and the expansionist ambitions of rival states Prussia, Austria and Russia. From 1772 to 1795, Polish lands were partitioned among these 3 powers. Prussia formed the province of South Prussia out of Polish lands, and Austria formed the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.


Partitions of Poland. The blue parts became South Prussia. The yellow-orange parts became the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia & Lodomeria and the green parts part of the Russian Empire.

19th century Poland
After Napoleon defeated a Prussian army in 1806, the Duchy of Warsaw and the Free City of Danzig were established as French client states. Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia in 1812 ended these states. At the Congress of Vienna (1815) Prussia was awarded the Grand Duchy of Posen, which was incorporated into Prussia in 1848. Congress Poland was formed as a Russian entity, with Austria claiming Galicia in the south, leaving Krakow as a free city. Congress Poland became fully Russian in 1841, with Krakow absorbed into Austria-Hungary in 1846.


Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815). After 1815 the western part became Prussian-occupied Duchy of Posen and the east Russian-occupied Congress Poland.

Especially in Prussia (from 1871 German Empire) and Russia, Polish identity was under threat of nationalist policies. In the Austrian part there was more freedom of expression and language. The German part of Poland was heavily Germanified but also developed the most economically, which can still be seen today in the density of the railroad network of present-day Poland.

Independence and the Second Republic (1918-1939)
The First World War left a power vacuum in Central Europe after the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war and German defeat in the Western Front. The Germans initially intended to form the Kingdom of Poland as a client state, but a Polish army under command of General Pilsudski claimed control over an area around Warsaw and sought acceptance by western allies to reestablish a Polish state, which became the Second Republic in 1918. Polish ambitions were to claim the territory of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which caused wars with newly independent Lithuania and Bolshevist Russia. The Soviet-Polish War (1918-1921) is a relatively unknown conflict in the west, but saw fierce fighting with the Russians first advancing up to Warsaw but the Polish eventually victorious capturing Wilno (causing strained relations with Lithuania) and large parts of present-day Belarus and Western Ukraine, which was ethnically mixed in those days. The conflict was marked by ethnic violence from both sides and played a role in the tensions in the region during the interwar period.



The Second Republic after the Soviet-Polish War (1918-1921)

The interwar years were marked by heavy military investments in Poland due to the strained relations with Germany in the west and the USSR in the east. The Second Polish Republic wasn't really a democracy, but resembled more a military dictatorship within an increasingly unstable region. It sought an alliance with Britain and France to secure its own independence, but the German-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 resulted in Poland being attacked from both sides during the start of WW2 in Europe.

World War 2
World War 2 was absolutely devastating for Poland. Nazi ideology strived to exterminate all Poles and Jews and replace them with German settlers. Nazi terror in these parts of Europe were of an almost unimaginable larger scale than witnessed in Western Europe, and literally millions of Polish citizens (including Jews and other ethnicities) perished due to Nazi terror.

The Soviet occupiers in the east targeted mostly Polish elite and military personnel. A part of the Polish army (Home Army) was able to reach Britain through the Baltic and would serve on the Western Front from 1940. From 1944 the Red Army (with help of the much smaller and Soviet-controlled Polish People's Army) conquered Poland from Nazi Germany and turned it into a client state of the USSR, while agreeing with the Western Allies to annex eastern Poland but compensate them by shifting Polish borders westward, approximately to where they were a 1000 years before. Because of this Poland is often referred to as a 'country on wheels'. Furthermore, many Poles feel they have been betrayed by the Western Allies, as they did not open a Western Front when Poland was attacked in 1939, and allowed Stalin to include the country in the Soviet sphere of influence. Polish resistance by Polish Home Army veterans to Soviet dominance continued well up to 1946, but was crushed by mass arrests and deportations.


Polish territorial changes between 1939 and 1945. Many Poles expelled from eastern territories were resettled in former German territories in present-day Western Poland. Germans were expelled and left mostly for West Germany.

Communist Poland (1945-1989)
Poland lost a significant amount of its population in WW2 and had to resettle eastern citizens in newly acquired formally German territories. The People's Republic of Poland was formally established in 1949.

In 1978 Polish cardinal Karel Woitula became Pope John Paul II, which helped sparking Polish demands for more freedom from the Soviet Union. In 1980 labour union Solidarity, led by Lech Wałesa, organised a strike that was spreading across multiple levels of society. This situation led to the declaration of martial law by General Jaruzelski in 1982, allegedly to prevent intervention by other Warsaw Pact forces. The People's Republic eventually came to an end peacefully during the wave of revolutions in the Eastern Bloc in 1989, with Wałesa becoming the first president of the Polish Third Republic.

Polish Third Republic (since 1989)
The Third Republic initially had to deal with an economic shock and hyperinflation that lasted until 1994. From then on Poland has developed quite well into a modern democracy with high living standards, though slower than in neighbouring Czech Republic. In 2004 it joined the EU but it hasn't joined EMU and it is not clear if that will happen soon. Recent Polish politics have become very polarised between hardline catholic conservatives and free-market liberals. The conservative government is accused of making the constitution less liberal sparking massive street protests and EU criticism. Despite that, the country is in a better shape than ever before, and its many historical sites attract a lot of tourists every year.

Currency
Poland has a long and complicated currency history. The first Polish coins were struck in the 10th century and were silver Denars and Oboles. From the 14th century, the Grosz (Groat) was introduced. The Prague Groat was worth 12 Denar, and the Krakow Groat 16 Denar, readjusted to 18 Denar in 1380. A Kwartnik was 9 Denar.

The 18 Denar to a Grosz stayed for centuries, but new units were added influenced by coinages coming from other parts of Europe. The Złoty became the official currency:

1 Dukat = 45 Groszy
1 Złoty/Florin/Polnischer Gulden = 30 Groszy
1 Grosz/Grossus/Groschen = 18 Denar
1 Szeląg/Solidus/Schilling = 6 Denar

The Talar (Thaler), a coin of 28 grams of silver, was used alongside the Złoty and at the start of the 16th century around equal to the Złoty, but over time the Talar became worth more and more due to the debasement of Polish currency. By 1632 it was worth 3 Złote, and by 1649 even 6 Złotych. From 1764 it was fixed to 8 Złotych. The Dukat was a 3.5g gold coin that gained value even quicker, to 2 Talar by the 17th century.

The Ort was added as a smaller silver coin in the 17th century worth between 1/5 and 1/4 of a Talar.

In 1764 the Talar was made the official currency of Poland-Lithuania, worth 8 Złotych or 32 Silver Groszy or 240 Copper Groszy.

The Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815) had the following monetary system:

1 Dukat = 3 Talara
1 Talar = 6 Złotych
1 Złoty = 30 Groszy

After 1815 the Prussian-controlled Grand Duchy of Posen shortly continued the Grosz but switched to Prussian Thaler quickly after. In Galicia, the Austrian Gulden was introduced at a rate of 4 Złoty and 12 Groszy, and in Congress Poland the Złoty was continued worth 15 Kopek and mixed with Russian coinage. After 1841 only Russian coins were produced in Warsaw.

The German occupation during WW1 brought the Ostmark and Ostruble to various parts of Poland and the Baltic. In 1917 the German Reichsbank introduced the Polish Marka (=100 Fenigow) which was at par with the German Papiermark. In 1919 this currency was worth 90 per $ but hyperinflation soon followed due to the situation in neighbouring Weimar Germany and the Polish-Soviet War. In 1924 the Marka was replaced by the Złoty at 1.8 million Marka, with the Złoty specified to LMU standards (equal to Swiss Franc) and worth 5.18/$, and decimalised to 100 Groszy.

The Złoty suffered from devaluation from 1925 but stabilized at around 9/$, a rate that was held until the outbreak of World War 2. The German occupiers set a rate of 50 Reichspfennig per Złoty.

In 1950 the Third Złoty replaced all WW2 issues at a rate of 100 to 1. It was officially linked to gold and supposed to be worth 4 Złoty/$ but never became convertible as Poland's economy was transformed to a communist model. A black market with considerably lower rates was present in parallel to the official foreign exchange rates. In 1990 the Złoty became freely convertible and a period of serious hyperinflation followed which lasted until 1994, when the Fourth Złoty was introduced at a rate of 10,000 to 1. It has since been a stable currency worth around 3.85/$.

Coins of Poland:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pologne-1.html

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795):
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pologne-lituanie-1.html

Kingdom of Galicia & Lodomeria (1772-1815):
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pologne-5.html#devise1486

South Prussia (1795-1807):
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pologne-5.html#devise1487

Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815):
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pologne-5.html#devise2608

Grand Duchy of Posen (1815-1848):
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pologne-5.html#devise1485

Congress Poland (1815-1841), including Russian coinage minted in Warsaw until 1864:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pologne-5.html#devise2609

Republic of Krakow (1835-1846):
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pologne-5.html#devise2611
Trying this again. Removed a few details but left most intact.

Please act like a reasonable person when posting here!
I like the 2 Zlote serie, especially animals
Referee of south atlantic islands
I only have Polish non-commemorative coins starting from the Marka-era. They produce a bit too many commemoratives to my liking, but for other collectors it must be a nice country to collect from as the themes can be interesting (notice the contrast between themes used before or after 1989) and the coins are pretty low cost.

I find the Polish coins from before the 20th century very interesting. Unfortunately I was never able to get hold of any of them.
:| I am sorry, I am the one of those being responsible for putting old thread to trash.
Catalogue administrator
It's not only you, don't worry... The former topic was too much polemic and getting too much politized. And even after warning, a dummy decided to charge again and forced me to call for Ben.

Anyway this shows us the limits to no more cross in further topics, especially in this part of Europe which has always been considered sensitive about such topics. When we'll cross the former iron curtain, we'll be quiet!

Turning back to Poland coinage, most of my Polish coins listed in this topic (no Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth yet, another target in my collection if not too much expensive?) are post-Communist coinage. Fortunately I managed to find a Congress Poland billon coin of 10 Groszy (I say billon as I can't consider a silver coin a coin with a .192 fineness only!)
Administrateur du catalogue, référent de nombreuses nations antiques et de la Lorraine.
Catalogue administrator, numerous Antique nations and Lorraine referee.
I have 29 different type from Poland. The coins from the 1970's come all from my dad. He used to race motorcycles. They got so much starting money in those days. They were supposed to spend the money in the country. But they always ended up with money left. I think they hid the money in a closet or something in the van.
The newer coins I got mostly from a girlfriend from one of my friends at the time.

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