The 1924 Eagle in Wreath issue, part 1

Szczegóły: Autor: Ed Andrews; Kategoria: FOR ENGLISH READERS; Opublikowano: 11 sierpień 2018; Odsłon: 2797

After regaining independence in 1918, the territory of the Second Republic of Poland initially consisted of four currencies: the German mark, the Austrian crown, the tsarist rouble and the Polish mark. In January 1920, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland established the Polish Mark as the only currency of the Polish state. The Polish mark (MKP) was a monetary unit in force since 9 December 1916 in the areas of the Kingdom of Poland occupied by the German Empire.

The Polish mark was introduced by decree of the Governor General of Warsaw of 9 December 1916.
In the General Government of Warsaw, the Polish Mark was issued by the Polish National Loan Fund (PNLF) and since 26 April 1917 it has been the only legal tender in the area. The banknotes of 1917 contained a white eagle. On 28 February 1919. The Legislative Sejm passed a law on replacing the current currency of the "Polish Mark" with the new "Złoty" currency. In 1919, 1, 2, 5, 100 and 500 złoty banknotes were printed. The introduction of newly printed banknotes was hampered by huge budget deficits and rising inflation.
The Polish mark became legal tender throughout Poland only by virtue of the Act of 15 January 1920. Due to the unstable situation of the treasury during and immediately after the Polish-Bolshevik war, the Polish mark was subject to inflation. In 1923, the moderate inflation of the mark turned into hyperinflation during the government of Wincenty Witos, which led to a serious crisis. The exchange rate of the Polish mark dropped from 9 MKP per USD in 1918 to 6,375,000 MKP per USD at the end of 1923.
On March 1, 1923, Władysław Grabski was appointed to the position of Treasury Minister and soon presented a programme of state repair. However, the Sejm rejected this plan. At the end of the year, on December 18, 1923, Władysław Grabski was appointed Prime Minister and received 6-month legislative powers from the Sejm.
He soon replaced the Polish mark with a new currency called the Polish Złoty. PNLF was replaced by Bank Polski. The exchange rate of the Polish zloty was equal to the exchange rate of the Swiss franc. The new currency was based on the gold parity, the value of 1 PZL was set at the equivalent of 0.1687 grams of gold, and the PZL/USD parity was set at the level of 5.18 PZL per 1 USD. Grabski established the ratio of exchange of the MKP for the gold at 1,800,000:1.

Grabski's currency reform also resulted in the issue of postage stamps in the new currency. The first issue took place on 1. V. -9. VII. 1924. It was then that the 11-value series entitled "Eagle in the Wreath" was released.

Below we present the first part of the 8-screen exhibition prepared by Ed Andrews, President of the POLONUS Polish Philatelic Society. The next part of this interesting exhibit will be successively presented on our website.

Introduction bases on Wikipedia.