The monetary chaos that remained after the reign of the Saxon Wettin dynasty in Poland was brought under control by King Stanisław August at the very beginning of his reign (1764-1795). The king not only pursued an effective monetary policy, but also personally took care of the quality and appearance of the coins. What is more, when the mint initially ran at a loss, he covered the deficit from his own coffers. A new monetary system was introduced in 1766 by a universal decree of the Crown Treasury Commission. Ducats, thalers and their fractions were minted, as well as the most common copper coins: the trojak, the grosz, the half-grosz and the schilling. Some of them also bore an inscription in Polish, which provided information about the name of the coin and the origin of the domestic ore, extracted in the mines near Kielce at that time.

Coins were initially struck in Krakow and later only at the newly established mint in Warsaw. It is that mint that the copper coin with a face value of one grosz comes from. The front face, i.e. the obverse, bears the royal monogram composed of the letters SAR (Stanislaus Augustus Rex) under the crown. It separates the date of issue: 17 – 86. On the back face, or the reverse, under the crown is a five-field escutcheon with the state emblems of Poland and Lithuania and the Ciołek coat of arms of the Poniatowski family in the centre. At the bottom, there are the letters E.B. representing the Warsaw minter Efraim Brenna, and along the rim, the inscription: GROSZ Z MIEDZI KRAIOWEY (The Domestic Copper Grosz).

The obverse of the new collector coin features two circles positioned side by side. The circle on the left contains the image of the Eagle established as the state emblem of the Republic of Poland, the inscription RZECZPOSPOLITA POLSKA (Republic of Poland), the year of issue: 2024 and the face value of 20 ZŁ. The circle on the right, on the other hand, reproduces the reverse of the coin of Stanisław August with the five-field escutcheon. The beautiful medal by Jan Filip Holzhäusser with a representation of Juno Moneta, struck in 1766/1767 to commemorate the monetary reform and the opening of the new mint in Warsaw, was used as the background. The main element of the reverse of the new coin is the obverse of the coin of Stanisław August with his monogram and the date 1786. In the background, situated on the left, there is the king’s supralibros with a five-field escutcheon. It is a complete analogy of the escutcheon from the 1 grosz coin. The whole is completed with an inscription along the rim: GROSZ Z MIEDZI KRAJOWEJ STANISŁAWA AUGUSTA (The Domestic Copper Grosz of King Stanisław August).

Stanisław Suchodolski

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