Occupation and Destruction of Mint of Poland

On September 1st, 1939 the employees of the Mint of Warsaw began their work as on any other day. About 9 o’clock the first bombs were dropped on Warsaw and this made the citizens of Warsaw realize that World War II began. The military authorities gave an order to secure the precious metals and to evacuate the factory. Someone even came up with an idea to drown the punches for minting coins in the Vistula River. A few days later the mint was attacked by the German air forces and artillery.
When Warsaw surrendered, the company was supervised by the German occupational authorities. The first thing they did was to take to the Reich the reserves of precious metals (some of them were donated by Poles to restore the country). Then, the Germans decided to reconstruct the buildings destroyed during the war activities. When the company started working again a doctor Muhlman appeared who claimed to be a historian. He ordered to pack in boxes the numerous numismatic items and to transport them to Germany. While packing, the employees managed to hide a collection of Stanisław August Poniatowski’s metal punches of the 18th century. When Muhlman went for dinner they opened one of the boxes and removed the most valuable Polish historical coins, including golden coins, silver rix-dollars and medals. Today one can see them in the mint in the Numismatic Cabinet. They survived the war buried in one of the estates in Warsaw.

In 1941 the German authorities decided to start issuing occupational coins. As they did not control the production of punches, the whole issue of 1941 – 1944 was made with pre-war punches on which there was the white eagle but which lacked the swastika. In 1944, when the Warsaw Uprising broke out, the German army, withdrawing from the District of Praga, blew up the buildings of the Mint of Warsaw. A few-tons machines for coins production fell a few meters below the ground and then were buried by debris.