Focus Historia about the Mint of Poland
The December issue of the Focus Historia magazine will feature an article on the collection of the Numismatic Cabinet of the Mint of Poland.
The article entitled ‘The Rescued Treasures of the Mint’ (‘Ocalone Skarby Mennicy’) discusses the history of coins, medals and coin dies from the Mint’s museum, rescued from being transported to the Third Reich by heroic employees of the Mint.
Below we present part of the article as well as photos of museum items related to the events of the year 1940. The rescued collection can be seen at the exposition in the Numismatic Cabinet of the Mint of Poland in the Aurum Tower building at 11 Waliców Street.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
’(...) During the World War II thousands of precious pieces of art of great historical value. Museums and galleries were being plundered by the invader. The collection of the Mint of Poland, then located in Markowska Street in Warsaw’s Praga district, was not an exception. The outstanding courage and heroic struggle of a dozen of people resulted in the most precious items from the museum’s collection being rescued from being transported to the Third Reich. The mastermind behind the operation, the then curator of the Numismatic Cabinet, was a renowned numismatist, Władysław Terlecki.
For many years only a very narrow group of numismatists knew about these events. In 1966 the Numismatic Bulletin published a short note about the operation and a year later the same magazine included a longer article based on the memories of several people, mainly employees of the Mint. (...)’
The complete article will be published here shortly.
Mariusz Przybylski
