1 Zloty German occupation

The Bank Emisyjny w Polsce was itself a German creation — established in April 1940 specifically to displace the Bank Polski and issue a new currency for the occupied General Government territory. Its notes were not Polish money in any meaningful sense; they were an instrument of economic control, used in part to extract resources and suppress the pre-war financial infrastructure.

Sowiński's involvement is notable. He was one of the few Polish designers retained — or compelled to work — under the occupation administration. Printing in Kraków rather than Berlin was a deliberate signal of permanence.

The 1 Złoty denomination was the workhorse of daily transactions and consequently among the most heavily circulated values in the series, with condition a consistent problem.