2010 Poland 2zl UNC Coin "Katyn Crime 70 Years"

• Mint: Polish Mint
• Denomination: 2 Zloty
• Quality: Uncirculated
• Issue limit: 1 million pcs.
• Alloy: Base metal
• Diameter: 27 mm
• Weight: 8.15 grams
• Obverse Design: Ewa Tyc-Karpinska
• Reverse Design: Urszula Walerzak
• Box/Capsule: No/Yes
• Certificate: No

Additional Information

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Issued on April 9, this coin honors the 70th anniversary of the extermination of Polish officers murdered by the NKVD in the Katyn forest.

70 years ago, on April 3, 1940, extermination of Polish officers who had been captured by the Soviets in September 1939, began. The officers were placed in camps in Kozelsk near Smolensk and in Starobilsk near Kharkiv. Polish police officers, prison guards, gendarmes and intelligence and counter-intelligence officers were placed in Ostashkov near Kalinin (presently and formerly called Tver). At the beginning of April 1940, the first group of prisoners was taken from Kozelsk. NKVD officers shot them dead in the Katyn forest. They (4410 Polish officers altogether) were buried there in collective graves. Later, collective graves were also created in Mednoye near Tver and in Piatykhatky In the suburbs of Kharkiv. 3739 prisoners from the Starobilsk camp were executed in the NKVD local office in Kharkiv, and 6314 police officers from Ostashkov were murdered in the NKVD building in Kalinin. 7305 prisoners were killed in prisons in Kiev, Kharkiv, Kherson and Minsk.

The reverse shows a military patrol cap with the Polish military eagle, with KATYŃ inscribed in the background. Along the rim there is a two-verse inscription: 70. ROCZNICA ZBRODNI KATYŃSKIEJ (70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KATYN CRIME). The obverse features the eagle as the state emblem of Poland.