5 Zlotys German occupation

The Bank Emisyjny w Polsce was a German-controlled issuing authority established in April 1940 specifically to replace the Bank of Poland and sever the occupied territory's monetary ties to the Polish government-in-exile in London. This note was part of the first emission under that institution — a deliberate administrative act as much as a financial one, intended to legitimize the General Government's economic control over occupied Polish territory.

The series was printed by the Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych in Warsaw, one of the few cases in occupied Europe where the Germans retained and operated an existing state security printing facility rather than importing notes from the Reich.