Slovakia

Set Description


^{From Wikipedia:}

After the Munich Agreement and its Vienna Award, Nazi Germany threatened to annex part of Slovakia and allow the remaining regions to be partitioned by Hungary or Poland unless independence was declared. Thus, Slovakia seceded from Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939 and allied itself, as demanded by Germany, with Hitler's coalition. The government of the First Slovak Republic, led by Jozef Tiso and Vojtech Tuka, was strongly influenced by Germany and gradually became a puppet regime in many respects.

Most Jews were deported from the country and taken to German death camps. Thousands of Jews, however, remained to labor in Slovak work camps in Sered, Vyhne, and Nováky. Tiso, through the granting of presidential exceptions, has been credited with saving as many as 40,000 Jews during the war, although other estimates place the figure closer to 4,000 or even 1,000. Nevertheless, under Tiso's government, the vast majority of Slovakia's Jewish population (between 75,000-105,000 individuals) were murdered. Tiso became the only European leader to pay Nazi authorities to deport his country's Jews.

After it became clear that the Soviet Red Army was going to push the Nazis out of eastern and central Europe, an anti-Nazi resistance movement launched a fierce armed insurrection, known as the Slovak National Uprising, near the end of summer 1944. A bloody German occupation and a guerilla war followed. The territory of Slovakia was liberated by Soviet and Romanian forces by the end of April 1945.

The coins of the WWII Slovak koruna (slovak: koruna slovenská) were the first coins ever minted by a Slovak state. These coins were minted in the Kremnica mint, once the common state mint of the whole Czechoslovak state. Coins carried not only monetary but also propaganda function: they showed the symbols of the Slovak nation and the just born independent Slovak state. Lower denominations were made of base metals, while those above 5 Ks contained silver.

Mintage figures: 



1942          5h                          1,000,000          

1939          10h                         15,000,000          

1942          10h                         7,000,000          

1940          20h bronze                  10,972,000          

1941          20h bronze                  4,028,000          

1942          20h bronze                  6,474,000        * Rare

1942          20h aluminum                Included above   * Varieties exist

1943          20h aluminum                15,000,000       * Varieties exist

1940          50h                         ?                * Rare

1941          50h                         8,000,000          

1943          50h                         4,400,000          

1944          50h                         2,621,000          

1940          1Ks                         2,350,000          

1941          1Ks                         11,650,000          

1942          1Ks                         6,000,000        * Open and closed 4

1944          1Ks                         884,000          

1945          1Ks                         3,321,000          

1939          5Ks                         5,101,000        * Pointed top or flat top to the letter

                                                             A in NAROD, Approximately 2,000,000 

                                                             pieces were melted down by the 

                                                             Czechoslovak National Bank in 1947"

1944          10Ks                        13,81,000        * Variety 1 with cross, Variety 2 

                                                             without

1939          20Ks                        200,000          

1941          20Ks                        2,500,000        * Variety 1 single bar, Variety 2 

                                                             double bar

1944          50Ks                        2,000,000          









Ownership:

Date                         Denom                       NGC                         PCGS

1942                         5h                          9/11                        6/7

1939                         10h                                                     0/1

1942                         10h                                                     1/1

1940                         20h bronze                                              0/1

1941                         20h bronze

1942                         20h bronze                                              1/1

1942                         20h aluminum                0/3                         1/1

1943                         20h aluminum

1940                         50h                         1/1                         0/1

1941                         50h                                                     1/1

1943                         50h                         1/2

1944                         50h

1940                         1Ks                         1/3                         1/1

1941                         1Ks

1942                         1Ks                                                     2/2

1944                         1Ks                         1/0                         1/1

1945                         1Ks                                                     1/3

1939                         5Ks                                                     3/3

1944                         10Ks                        4/10                        1/7

1939                         20Ks                        4/6                         6/12

1941                         20Ks                        13/15                       3/13

1944                         50Ks                        8/14                        0/6