20 Gulden Bank Von Danzig

The Bank von Danzig occupied an unusual constitutional position: it operated as the central bank of the Free City of Danzig, a nominally independent League of Nations protectorate that existed in deliberate ambiguity between German cultural identity and Polish economic interests. Poland controlled the port and customs revenue; Germany exerted enormous political pressure; the League notionally supervised everything. The Danzig Gulden, reintroduced in 1923 after hyperinflation destroyed the mark-based system, was the practical instrument through which the city tried to maintain fiscal independence from both neighbors.

Bradbury Wilkinson handled the entire Bank von Danzig note series from London. By 1932 the political situation in Danzig was deteriorating rapidly, with the NSDAP making significant electoral gains in the Free City's parliament. Notes issued this late in the series circulated into a period of acute instability that would end, within seven years, with the Danzig Gulden ceasing to exist entirely.