Description

Rare Free City of DANZIG 1923 1/2 Gulden silver coin

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Graded by NGC XF45

Diameter: 19.5 mm

Weight: 2.5 g

Ag 750

Fischer: WMG009, Parchimowicz: 59

Graded and slabbed by NGC, one of the world's two leading numismatic grading services, this is a guarantee that the coin is genuine and has been graded accurately and professionally. The solid plastic capsule is individually numbered so that the coin details can be verified on a central database and it is tamperproof. In addition, the coin is protected from handling which can be detrimental to the coin's condition and value.

These are some of the reasons why such coins are highly marketable, especially in the USA and Poland where values are steadily rising in the face of counterfeits originating from China.

The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdansk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (today Gdansk) and surrounding areas.

The Free City was created on 15 November 1920 in accordance with the terms of Part III, Section XI of the Treaty of Versailles  of 1919 without a plebiscite. The Free City included the city of Danzig and over two hundred nearby towns, villages, and settlements. As the League of Nations decreed, the region was to remain separated from the nation of Germany, and from the newly-resurrected nation of Poland. The Free City was not an independent State; it was under League of Nations protection and put into a binding custom union with Poland. Poland also had special utilization rights towards the city. The Free City was created in order to give Poland sufficient access to the sea, while at the same recognizing that its population was mainly German.

In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party and the democratic opposition was suppressed. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Free City was abolished and incorporated into the newly-formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. Widespread anti-semitic and anti-Polish discrimination and organized murder followed. Starting with the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945, large numbers of ethnic German citizens of the former Free City of Danzig were forced to leave (expelled). The city was subsequently put under Polish administration by the Allied Potsdam Agreement, and Polish settlers were brought in to replace the German population. (from Wikipedia)