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On April 8, the National Bank of Poland issued a new commemorative coin with a face value of 50 zloty. This coin was designed in tribute to the 85th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre, one of the most tragic episodes in Poland's modern history.
The prisons on the Eastern Borderlands, occupied by the USSR, were soon filled with thousands of civilians as well. From among the prisoners of war and civilian captives, the Soviet secret police (NKVD) selected more than 20,000 people, who were placed in special NKVD camps in Kozelsk, Starobilsk, and Ostashkov, as well as in prisons in Western Belarus and Western Ukraine. They were representatives of the military, political, intellectual, and cultural elites of the Second Polish Republic. Following the political decision of the highest authorities of the USSR on March 5, 1940, in the following months a massive crime was committed against the defenseless prisoners of war and civilian captives, who, regardless of their religion, education, wealth, and origin, were, according to the Soviets, "sworn and incorrigible enemies of the Soviet state." At the same time, a large-scale operation was carried out to deport civilians within the USSR, including the families of prisoners of war and civilian captives living in the territories annexed by Soviet Russia.
The German attack on the USSR in 1941 altered the international balance of power and forced the reestablishment of relations between the government of the Republic of Poland in exile and Soviet Russia. Polish authorities began searching for the missing; their whereabouts remained unknown until April 1943, when, for propaganda purposes, the Germans officially informed the public about the discovery of mass graves in Katyn. The USSR immediately acted to falsify and cover up the Katyn crime, now known as the "Katin lie."
During the communist era, any attempt to investigate Soviet crimes and commemorate those murdered was prohibited. It wasn't until April 13, 1990, that the USSR officially admitted to having committed the "Stalinist crime." This allowed for archaeological investigations and exhumations in Kharkiv, Katyn, Mednoye, and Bikivnia, where cemeteries for the victims of the Katyn massacre were subsequently established.
The reverse of the coin depicts various Polish Army officers and a State Police officer, against the background of a fragment of the "Katin Epitaph" from the Katin Museum in Warsaw, containing details of the massacre victims. Along the lower edge, the semicircular inscription of the coin's motif appears: "85. ROCZNICA ZBRODNI KATYŃSKIEJ" (85th Anniversary of the Katin Massacre).
On the obverse, on the right, there is an image of the Polish Army military eagle, model 1919, with a broken wing, extracted from the mass graves in Kharkiv. On the left, we see a reproduction of a phrase from the postcard sent by the family to one of the prisoners, which reads: Czekam / na ciebie tatusiu / z upragnieniem (I'm waiting for you with longing, Dad). On the left and right, the shoulder details of an officer of the Silesian Provincial Police and an officer of the Polish Army. Below, on the left side, there is the face value of the "50 ZŁ" coin, the image of the eagle, established as the state emblem of the Republic of Poland, and on the lower edge, the inscription of the issuing country "RZECZPOSPOLITA POLSKA" (Republic of Poland) and the year of issue "2025".
Technical characteristics
Country: Poland
Issue date: April 8, 2025
Face value: 50 zlotys
Quality: BU
Diameter: 45 mm
Metal: 999 Silver
Weight: 62.20 g
Issue volume: 5,000
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