A beautifully preserved pattern, nickel-plated fifty-grain coin.
The second highest grade in the NGC registry.
Only three pieces were rated higher at the time of creating the auction description. Please verify the NGC registry each time to check its current condition.
Following the "Specialized catalog of Polish coins of the 20th and 21st centuries". by Mr. Jerzy Chalupski, we encounter the following text: "August 26, 1939. The President of the Republic of Poland signed a decree published on the same day introducing steel coins with denominations of 20 and 50 groszy into circulation. Steel fifty-groszy coins were to be introduced into circulation and function in parallel with nickel coins."
A coin so far erroneously attributed to the General Government, but actually minted already during the Second Republic. This is described very nicely on his blog "Let's Collect Coins", Mr. Jerzy Chalupski:
"In all, with two exceptions*, catalogs of Polish coins of the 20th century, the authors placed it in the sections of foreign coins minted for Polish lands. It is customary to speak of the fifty-grosz coin of the General Government.
The truth is different. It is a legal Polish coin introduced into circulation in the last days of the Second Republic. Despite irrefutable evidence of the above, despite the existence of legal acts, accounts of mint employees and press publications from 1939, the misconception still persists that this is an issue of the General Government."
