For many numismatists, it may be surprising that the National Museum in Warsaw (MNW) holds more Teutonic coins in its collections than many renowned museum institutions worldwide. During my research, I managed to systematize data regarding Teutonic coin collections in various museums. The results indicate that the MNW’s collection is among the largest in the world in terms of the number of these coins. For example, the Warsaw museum houses as many as 47 specimens related to Master Heinrich Reffle von Richtenberg. In comparison, the Numismatic Cabinet of the Berlin State Museums (Bode-Museum), part of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, has 36 such coins, the Emeryk Hutten-Czapski Museum in Krakow – 7, and the British Museum – only 2.
Interestingly, the Malbork collections, looted by the USSR after World War II and likely stored currently in the depots of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, included around 80 specimens of this master’s coins. In this context, the 47 coins in the MNW collection are an extremely impressive number. This raises the question: how did the Warsaw museum amass such a rich collection, and where do these exceptional numismatic resources come from?
| It is worth emphasizing that the MNW collections have been fully digitized and are available to everyone on the website: MNW WEBSITE. I would like to express my appreciation for the remarkable work done by the museum, which, by digitizing its collections, significantly facilitates access to the materials. Thanks to this, interested individuals can conveniently browse and analyze the collections without unnecessary effort or complications. |
Returning to the question of the coins’ origins, users browsing the MNW’s resources will easily notice that many of them come from Andrzej Potocki’s collection. Who was this man, and how did his collection end up in the MNW?
Andrzej Kazimierz Potocki (1861–1908), a count bearing the Pilawa coat of arms, was a prominent Polish aristocrat, politician, and collector, renowned for amassing numismatics, Słuck sashes, carpets, and other works of art. His numismatic collection, numbering between 13,000 and 14,000 items, was one of the largest private collections in Poland before World War II. As a member of the Potocki family, he had access to significant financial resources and connections, which enabled him to acquire valuable numismatics. The collection included Polish coins tied to the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as Galician, Austrian, and Teutonic coins, reflecting the family’s interest in regional history. Although Potocki was not a professional numismatist like, for example, Andrzej Kunisz, he belonged to a group of aristocratic collectors for whom numismatics was both a passion and a means of documenting their family and regional heritage.
Until the outbreak of World War II, the collection was stored in the Krakow house “Pod Jagnięciem,” owned by the family, as well as the neighboring “Pod Baranami” palace. It had been transferred there from Wilanów in the 19th century. Some coins were marked with the Potocki family’s Pilawa coat of arms, which facilitates the identification of specimens from this collection at numismatic auctions.
The collection’s history becomes more dramatic during the war. Upon the outbreak of World War II, Adam Potocki (1896–1966), Andrzej’s son, packed the artifacts and hid them in the cellars of the “Pod Baranami” palace. Unfortunately, after the German occupation of Krakow, the collection fell into their hands. Documentation indicates that it comprised 7 crates and 4 zinc cassettes, containing approximately 13,000 items, including 860 gold coins. The collection was taken to Wawel Castle, and toward the end of the war, it was transported to Seichau Castle in Lower Silesia. In May 1945, Prof. Stanisław Lorentz recovered it, securing the collection according to sources. The crates were damaged, and the coins were scattered, so they were gathered with shovels into sacks and transported back to Wawel.
The story was not without scandal. Andrzej Potocki (1920–1995), Adam’s son, who inherited the rights to the collection after 1945, attempted to reclaim it. Together with his wife, Maria, he tried to smuggle the collection to the West but was arrested due to a provocation by the Security Service, accused of “stealing” his own family’s collection. Over 40 crates of artifacts were seized by the Ministry of Public Security and later transferred to the National Museum in Warsaw. The trial of the Potocki couple took place in December 1946 and was public—they were sentenced to eight and six years in prison, respectively. In October 1946, the Security Service took possession of the collection, and during transport and afterward, coins, especially the gold ones, were looted. It is likely that some of them ended up on the domestic and Western collector markets as a result.
Fortunately, a significant portion of Andrzej Potocki’s collection is available at the MNW. In this way, this exceptional collection has greatly enriched the museum’s resources, supplementing them with rare and valuable numismatics, including Teutonic coins. This remarkable heritage remains a testament to Potocki’s collecting passion and Poland’s turbulent history.
Now, watch the 1946 newsreel describing how “Priceless treasures of our culture were saved for the Polish nation thanks to the vigilance of security service officers and soldiers.”
