A very interesting intaglio print of the main obverse of the famous London 500 zloty forgery of 1940.
After the cessation of hostilities in occupied Poland, a resistance movement became active almost immediately. This was not only an armed struggle, but also to harm the occupying forces by introducing counterfeit banknotes and disrupting the proper circulation of money. A separate unit was created for this purpose, existing under the code name PWB-17 (Underground Banknote Manufacturing). Secret printers received from PWB-17 all the necessary components for the production of counterfeit banknotes and documents. For fear of detection, the materials for producing counterfeits were transferred to Britain, and printing was handled by Thomas de la Rue and Co.
The offered 500 gold 1940 is an example of an attempted "London" forgery. It is a trial intaglio print of the main obverse print. The reverse is clean. Made on paper without watermarks.
Gray-blue color. Dimension 23 cm x 15.3 cm
The banknote bears the PMG certificate with the PMG 67 EPQ rating.
The only piece to receive such a high rating in the PMG registry. natural.
A very interesting value, shedding light on the history related to the creation of the most sought-after counterfeit banknote issued in occupied Poland!
In September 1939, due to the aggression of Nazi Germany against Poland, the Bank of Poland with its Government and President evacuated outside the borders of the Second Republic. In view of the lack of cash reserves, deposits in the giro accounts of the Bank of Poland were frozen. As a result of this action, private banks and savings banks could not maintain solvency, and the population lost access to their cash deposits held in accounts.
The evacuation of the Bank caused a severe gap in the Polish economic apparatus. Consequently, as early as October 1939, the economic spheres began to demand the establishment of another issuing institution to take over the duties of the Polish Bank.
When, in November 1939, the first talks took place between representatives of the Polish economic spheres and the occupation authorities on the creation of a new issuing institution, Feliks Młynarski put forward the demand that the appearance of the graphic design of the new paper money should be similar to that of the interwar zlotys, and that there should be inscriptions only in Polish. Mlynarski also postulated that the name of the issuing institution should include the phrase "in Poland."
The author of the appearance of the banknotes of the Emission Bank in Poland was Leonard Sowinski, who transformed the graphic design of the pre-war zlotys. This accelerated the design work and, as a result, they were ready as early as December 1939. In some cases of the occupation zlotys, the changes in the graphic layout were minor, while in others they were far-reaching. Only the 500 zloty denomination had no original design. When creating designs for the new banknotes, Leonard Sowinski removed national symbols in the form of the White Eagle and portraits of most national heroes.
When preparing the banknotes of the Bank of Issuance in Poland, printing them on banknote paper protected by a local watermark was abandoned. In the case of the first issue, only the highest denomination has such protection.
