The collection perfectly reflects the history of Polish coinage. It comprises over 16,500 items. They range from the oldest Polish coins from the early Middle Ages to the most recent coins minted for circulation and collection. The most valuable coins come from the former collections of the Museum of the Lubomirski Princes - ducats, thalers and donations (pol. donatywa) of the Jagiellonian and Electoral Kings (recovered after 1944). A separate group is formed by the collections of numismatic items donated to the Ossolineum by Stanislaw Garczynski in 2002-2003 (over 3,000 pieces) and by Jan Nowak-Jeziorski in 2004 (about 750 coins and banknotes).
The collection comprises more than 10,500 inventory units. The largest group is made up of German coins (over 4,600 pieces) from the early Middle Ages to the 20th century. The collection also includes Russian, Austrian, Czech, Hungarian, French, Italian, Swedish, Dutch and, to a lesser extent, other European coins. Other continents are also represented: Asia, South America and North America. Most of the coins date from the 18th to the 20th century. The collection also includes valuable treasures of medieval coins from the denarius and penny periods, as well as 17th-century szelags and kreutzers.
The collection of ancient coins had two great founders. Henryk Lubomirski donated almost 2,000 pieces in 1828. A year later, Ignacy Adam Count Krasicki donated almost 1,000 pieces. The rest of the history, well identified by provenance research, includes more than 120 different acquisitions, including donations and finds from eastern Galicia. Despite a decline of about 8 per cent in 1944-45, the collection now numbers 6,500 pieces, more than in Lviv. More than three-quarters of these are Roman coins, with the remainder made up of Greek coins, Roman provinces, eastern kingdoms, Celtic and barbarian coins, and ancient numismatics. Acquisitions in 2014-2022 enriched the collection with valuable barbarian imitations of Roman coins, gold and gilded. Almost half of the ancient coins have already been published in catalogues. It is worth consulting the list of publications, which includes a text on deciphering the meaning of the graffiti with a Gothic name on the aureus of Postumus from the third century after Christ.
The collection comprises more than 4,350 items. The collection includes issues from the earliest banknotes from 1794 to 1866, including a treasury ticket of the Kościuszko Uprising issued on 8 June 1794, banknotes in mark currency from 1916 to 1923, banknotes in zloty currency from 1919 to 1941, and banknotes of the National Bank of Poland issued after 1944. A valuable group is made up of replacement vouchers from cities all over Poland and various types of securities.
The collection consists of over 2,900 holdings. The majority of these are German and Russian issues from the 20th century, with smaller groups including Austrian, Hungarian, French, Romanian, Italian and Czech issues. A few pieces are from other European countries. A large group of replacement vouchers from Germany, Russia and Ukraine stands out.
The collection consists of more than 7,400 items, including old Polish medals (mainly those of the Jagiellonian and Vasa dynasties), a large collection of patriotic medals from the 19th and 20th centuries, minted to commemorate important national events and anniversaries, an interesting collection of various works by medallists from the interwar period, and contemporary medals by Polish and foreign authors.
The largest collection in the Division. It consists of more than 72,000 items. Within the collection there are 13 groups - collections: seal presses and stamps, seal impressions in wax, lacquer and on paper with wax backing, seal impressions in the form of printed or dry embossed stickers, ink stamp impressions, papal bulls, plaster and metal seal casts, synthetic resin seal casts, graphite seal impressions, unique seal barthnotypes, photocopies of seals and photocopies of seal drawings. The oldest objects date from the 13th century, the most recent from the 20th century (up to 1976) and represent European countries: Poland, Germany, Austria, Ukraine and (to a lesser extent) Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey. Valuable collections include the legacy of Professor Marian Gumowski, a collector and scholar (casts of stamps, impressions and ink prints), and the collection of the former Schaffgotsch Library in Cieplice-Zdrój, which includes the collection of the Prussian officer Hermann Keck von Schwarzbach and the collection of the eminent engravers from Cieplice, Carl Hensel and Friedrich Wilhelm Siebanhaar.
The collection currently comprises more than 6,020 inventory units and is very diverse, including: orders and decorations, mostly with award documents, commemorative and award badges, as well as military and civilian insignia and emblems. The most interesting groups of objects in the collection are undoubtedly: a rich collection of badges and insignia of the Polish Legions from 1914-1917, a unique collection of commemorative badges connected with the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918-1919, a collection of regimental badges of the Polish Army from the interwar period and a rich collection of Polish military eagles from 1912-1950, as well as a rich collection of Polish orders and decorations from 1945-2000. It is also worth mentioning a small set of patriotic jewellery from the period of national mourning and the January Uprising, as well as an interesting collection of badges and emblems of the Polish-American community from the period 1919-1990.
The collection was donated to the Ossolineum in 2002 by the engineer Stanislaw Garczynski, a professional numismatist from Lviv who now lives in Texas. It contains over 3,000 numismatic items (coins, medals, banknotes), as well as numismatic magazines, philatelic objects, copies of documents and photographs illustrating the fascinating history of the collection. A selection of the most interesting items from this collection was presented in the exhibition The Stanisław Garczyński Collection. A Gift to the Ossolineum.
