One of the ornaments of the collection of Janusz Położenko.
Designs for the reverse of the uncirculated 1941 10 zloty banknote - date not put into circulation. Only issues of 1, 2, 5, 50 and 100 zloty denominations were reproduced with the 1941 date. The denominations of 10, 20 and 500 remained only in the first issue of 1940, but as can be seen from these designs, a second issue of 10 zlotys was being worked on. The two designs for the reverse of the 1941 10 zloty present in this collection are evidence of an advanced stage of work on a banknote that never went into circulation....
Proof prints are very rare qualities documenting the often unknown stages of banknote creation today. The only surviving witnesses of the complex process of their production. In the history of Polish paper money, there are periods from which we know more of these proofs, such as the issues of the zloty currency from the period of the Second Republic. There are also those for which they are almost unique. Such a period is the dark times of the German occupation.
This is a period when banknotes were, not coincidentally, modeled on interwar issues. As Czeslaw Miłczak notes, "for political reasons, the Germans wanted to maintain the optical resemblance with interwar banknotes, so that they would testify to the continuity of the state." And attempts to change this state of affairs ended in failure. They were undertaken by Sowinski, who prepared several designs graphically divergent from the banknotes of free Poland. However, they did not gain the approval of the German authorities, and work on them was abandoned at an early stage. One of the few mementos of those events remains this design....
An exceptional item in many respects.
Until now, on the Polish auction market, the 1941 10 zloty banknote was known only from sketches on carbon paper with pasted guilloches. In print form, that is, indicating a more advanced stage of work than just the author's designs, it is listed for the first time.
Two separate pieces of these samples are the subject of this offering.
The first is a print of the main layer made on paper with a watermark similar to the circulating issue - also zigzag lines, but thinner, in a diagonal arrangement. It measures 150 x 76 mm. Importantly, bearing the signature of the printing house LEIPZIG - GIESECKE & DEVRIENT - BERLIN. Confirming Cz. Miłczak's words that althoughthe printing was commissioned to a Viennese printer,"probably the state printing house in Vienna hired Giesecke & Devrient as a subcontractor."
The second item is a subprint, also made on watermarked paper similar to the circulating issue - also zigzag lines, but thinner, in a diagonal arrangement. Pieces measure 149 x 75 mm.
These designs show the interesting idea of the designer, who, wanting to make changes while maintaining the consistency so important for the era, chose a bust of Frederic Chopin for the reverse of the second 10-zloty bill of the occupation. It corresponded so beautifully with his statue present on the 10-zloty notes of the first issue.
Unitary items.
Recommended.
