Description and research notes
The 10 Złotych of 1 March 1940 was the first note issued by Bank Emisyjny w Polsce, the German-controlled central bank established in the General Government after the September 1939 invasion. Designed and printed by Giesecke & Devrient in Leipzig, it replaced pre-war Bank Polski currency and became the everyday money of occupied Poland.
Obverse: allegorical female figures of Industry and Agriculture within neoclassical ornament; crowned female head at left — a faint echo of national dignity amid occupation imagery. Reverse: classical arabesques around the denomination and watermark panel. Watermark: zigzag wave lines (not a portrait), reflecting wartime production simplicity and the need for rapid mass printing.
Prefixes identified print batches; the Series F prefix is acknowledged by specialists as the rarest (often cited under Milczak 94aF), printed in far smaller quantity and frequently missing from major collections.
Certified PMG 65 EPQ Gem Uncirculated — exceptionally well-preserved for a wartime issue where most survivors show heavy circulation or pressed paper without EPQ. Together with the contemporary counterfeit type (Pick 94x), this note frames the dual narrative of enforced monetary policy and underground resistance.