Description and research notes
Ministry of Finance 1 Zloty State Ticket dated 1 October 1938 and bearing serial number IB4039776. Issued by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland, it formed part of the emergency treasury-ticket program introduced to address the shortage of subsidiary coinage during the final days of the Second Polish Republic.
The face centers on the authority and historical continuity of the Polish state. At right, King Boleslaw I the Brave appears within an engraved portrait medallion, representing the first crowned ruler of Poland. The left margin carries an ornamental panel incorporating the crowned Polish eagle, while the central field displays the denomination, Warsaw issue date, and the printed signatures of Minister of Finance Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski and Director of the Currency Circulation Department Wieslaw Domaniewski.
The reverse is composed around a prominent central denomination surrounded by geometric guilloche ornament and repeated value devices designed for rapid recognition in circulation. The paper incorporates a repeating horizontal 1 ZL watermark serving as the principal security feature of the issue.
The note was designed by Leonard Sowinski, engraved by Marian Romuald Polak, and printed by Polska Wytwornia Papierow Wartosciowych S.A. in Warsaw. It represents the final stage of pre-war Polish state paper-money production immediately preceding the outbreak of the Second World War.
Although dated 1 October 1938, the ticket entered circulation on 26 August 1939 during the nationwide mobilization and remained legal tender until 20 May 1940. A total of 12,430,000 examples were printed. Surviving production material, including unnumbered sheets, printing trials, circulation proofs without watermark, and other manufacturing-stage material, documents the complete production history of the issue beyond the released circulation notes.
This example belongs to the IB serial series, classified as Miłczak 78b. The note preserves the original design, watermark, paper characteristics, and printing features of Poland's final pre-war 1 Zloty treasury ticket.
The issue documents one of the last emergency monetary measures undertaken by the Polish state before invasion and occupation, preserving the combined work of the Ministry of Finance, Polska Wytwornia Papierow Wartosciowych, and the artists and engravers responsible for the final generation of pre-war Polish treasury paper money.