The Slovak State's 500 Korún of 1939 was printed by the American Bank Note Company in New York — a striking logistical detail given that Slovakia had declared independence from Czechoslovakia in March of that year under heavy German pressure. Commissioning a prestigious American security printer while simultaneously operating as a Nazi client state was not unusual for the period; several Axis-aligned governments continued doing so until US entry into the war made such arrangements impossible.
Pick #2 is notably scarcer than Pick #1 of the same series. The short window between Slovak independence and the eventual wartime disruption to transatlantic printing contracts kept total issued quantities low.
The Slovak State's 500 Korún of 1939 was printed by the American Bank Note Company in New York — a striking logistical detail given that Slovakia had declared independence from Czechoslovakia in March of that year under heavy German pressure. Commissioning a prestigious American security printer while simultaneously operating as a Nazi client state was not unusual for the period; several Axis-aligned governments continued doing so until US entry into the war made such arrangements impossible.
Pick #2 is notably scarcer than Pick #1 of the same series. The short window between Slovak independence and the eventual wartime disruption to transatlantic printing contracts kept total issued quantities low.