Młynarki

History

After the German invasion of Poland and the ensuing occupation, the Reichsbank decided not to introduce German currency there, as it did not want to increase the money supply. Various Polish banks and credit institutions were temporarily closed, while some of their assets were nationalized by the German government. Many people lost their savings. On 15 December 1939, Hans Frank, the governor of the General Government, an administrative unit for most of occupied Poland, passed a decree creating a new bank, the Bank of Issue in Poland (Bank Emisyjny), which began operating in April the following year . The bank was headed by Feliks Młynarski, with the approval of the Polish government in exile.

The official exchange rate was set at 2 złoty for 1 reichsmark. The exchange system was meant to boost the Nazi economy at the expense of the Polish one. The black market exchange rate varied between three and four złotys to a reichsmark.

The most famous of the notes was the 500 złoty note, the góral ("highlander" or "mountaineer") named after the image of a góral on its front. The note is still popular among currency collectors. Counterfeiting of the currency was rampant. The name was also reflected in one of the actions of the Polish anti-Nazi resistance, "Operation Góral", a 1943 heist in which the insurgents took over a currency shipment worth over a million contemporary US dollars. The 500 note was also the standard "unit of corruption"; the minimum bribe that representatives of the occupation authorities required to facilitate the carrying out of illicit activity. In that role it was immortalized in the popular underground street song of Warsaw, Siekiera, motyka.

The currency notes were used exclusively within the General Government, but not the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. They were withdrawn from circulation between 1944 and 1945.