The Border Guard (SG) has been fulfilling its service for 30 years, bravely protecting the borders of Poland. Narodowy Bank Polski (NBP) wishes to celebrate this special anniversary by issuing a silver collector’s coin on 11 May 2022.
The Border Guard Day is celebrated on May 16. It was on that day in 1991 when the Border Guard was formed as a uniformed and armed force established to protect the Polish border. By issuing the anniversary coin, NBP intends to emphasize the importance of border guards for state security.
Border Guards are commemorated on the reverse and obverse
The coin is minted in silver and has a face value of 10 zloty. The reverse demonstrates SG colour guard’s officers with a flag. The obverse of the coin shows a Border Guard officer with a dog during a patrol.
The glorious traditions date back to the interwar period
The Border Guard has existed for 30 years, but its activities go back to the traditions of border formations created after Poland regained independence in 1918.
– With particular respect, SG cultivates the traditions of the Border Protection Corps (KOP) (1924–1939) – a special military organization created to provide protection against Soviet diversion in the Eastern Borderlands, and the Border Guard (1928–1939) – operating on the western border. It was a semi-military formation whose officers risked their lives, fighting smuggling during the Polish-German customs war. On September 1, 1939, SG soldiers were the first to fight the German invader, and on September 17, KOP soldiers fought the Soviet aggressor, writes SG Major Artur Ochał in the issue folder devoted to the coin.
They protect the borders. What other tasks do they have?
The modern Border Guard is a centralized administration organization of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. Nearly 15 thousand SG officers have many crucial tasks, such as protecting the state border on land and at sea, organizing and carrying out checks at border crossings, preventing and counteracting illegal migration, including monitoring compliance with the regulations on the entry and stay of foreigners. What other challenges do they have to face in their daily work?
SG Major Artur Ochał enumerates: – Detecting and prosecuting perpetrators of crimes related to crossing the border, including goods and excise goods, explosives, weapons and ammunition, drugs and intoxicants, as well as artworks or transporting them across the border, ensuring security in international communications and cooperating with authorized bodies and services in the field of detecting terrorist threats. The Border Guard also performs tasks resulting from the provisions of European Union law and international agreements.
– It is the only formation authorized to directly protect the Polish border with a length of 3,511 km (including 440 km of the sea border), with as much as 1,581 km being the external border of the European Union. The officers also perform migration tasks and fight organized crime in smuggling throughout the territory of Poland- adds Major Ochał.
Collector coins and banknotes issued by the NBP can be purchased at NBP Regional Branches and in the NBP online store: https://kolekcjoner.nbp.pl/en/
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