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500 Zlotys German occupation
| Issuer | Bank of Issue in Poland (Bank Emisyjny w Polsce) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1940 |
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| Printer | Polish Security Printing Works (Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych S.A.), Warsaw, Poland, Poland (1919-date) |
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| Obverse description | At right, an intaglio-printed vignette of a highlander's head in dark blue, wearing a traditional mountain hat; the remainder of the face is executed in letterpress with a green and golden yellow underprint. The composition reflects a distinctly Polish folk identity consistent with the broader design series issued under the German occupation authority. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The Bank Emisyjny w Polsce was a German-controlled institution established in April 1940 to replace the Bank of Poland and administer currency in the occupied General Government territory. It had no independence — policy was set in Berlin, and the zloty it issued was deliberately kept inconvertible to isolate the occupied population from Reich financial networks.
What makes this note unusual is its printer. The Polish Security Printing Works, having fallen under German administrative control after the September 1939 conquest, was kept operational and used to produce occupation currency — Polish craftsmen and equipment printing the instruments of their own economic subjugation. Over twelve million of this denomination were run off in the first year of occupation alone.
Leonard Sowiński had designed banknotes for the prewar Polish state.