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Looking For A Print Catalog Of Classic Polish Coins

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United States
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 Posted 05/18/2026  6:40 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add numismatist6 to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
I find a few online catalogs for these classic (16th century and later) but would like to purchase a print catalog. Language is not a big problem as long as the catalog is pretty complete.

Thanks in advance
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Sap's Avatar
Australia
16805 Posts
 Posted 05/18/2026  8:57 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Polish history is divided up into three discrete time periods, and collectors generally regard these time periods as separate; there are few collectors who would choose to specialize in all three areas, so there's little incentive for someone to include all three time periods in one book or series of books. I suspect many modern-day Poles would regard the first and third periods as "truly Polish", but less so for the second.

We have:
- The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795)
- Partitioned Poland (1795-1916, during which the neighbouring occupying powers sometimes created coins for use in their Polish territories)
- Modern Poland (1916 to present).

Thus, we have the Fischer catalogues, which only cover "modern Poland" from 1916. Catalogues for the Partition will likely be included in whichever occupying power is relevant eg. the Congress Kingdom of Poland was the Russian piece of Poland, and is likely found in the Russian-specialist coin catalogues, while "South Prussia" is normally included in the German coin catalogues. You're unlikely to find a book (other than a generic European or World coin catalogue) to include both.

There is an old series of books, in Polish, the Katalog Monet Polskich, in six volumes covering the periods from 1506 to 1864. https://en.numista.com/L110797 I don't know exactly what they include or don't include as those Numista images of the books are all I can find, but the "1864" end-date does imply it should include the Partition coinages, as well as Commonwealth, Napoleonic and Krakow coins. I also don't know if those books include coins from the "Lithuanian half" of the Commonwealth, but I would assume they did.
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Spence's Avatar
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 Posted 05/18/2026  8:57 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Spence to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
This question might best be answered by @tdz, but I have used my Kopicki reference books a ton over the years.
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tdziemia's Avatar
United States
7933 Posts
 Posted 05/19/2026  8:34 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add tdziemia to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
You've got a couple of good responses already.

My inputs:
First, while I am not 100% on top of things, I think it's fair to say that Polish numismatic references have exploded in the last two decades with catalogs focusing on specific periods and types, and die varants. For trojaks you go to Iger (available online at https://iger.wcn.pl/) for orts you go to Shatalin. And so on.

Sticking with online references for the moment, the Numista catalog for Poland is very complete. The referee for the medieval to early modern Poland catalog (also a CCF member) followed the Kopicki catalog, and listed every type, even if some are so rare that no photos are available. It is one of the most complete parts of the Numista catalog, even if there are occasional complaints about the many minor variants listed with no explanatory photos.

But, since you specified print catalogs, as mentioned by spence, Kopicki is probably the best and broadest, in Polish and a bit tough to find, published 1990s I think.
I have Gumowski (Handbuch Der Polnischen Numismatik, 1960) in German, which I got as a spiral bound reprint from Karl Stephens, very inexpensively. I have not checked if he still carries it. It does not list as many variants as Kopicki, just main denomination/date/mint types.
Gumowski is not referenced very much these days in auctions, except for some medieval types.

Sap has made a very good point on coins struck in Vilnius before 1572 (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Numista places these under Lithuania. Polish numismatic catalogs treat them more like a mint than a different country.

Subtleties of European history.




Edited by tdziemia
05/19/2026 8:37 pm
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