The second life of the official seal. The example of the collection of seal matrices of the offices of the Polish People's Republic from 1945–1975 in the sphragistic collections of the Numismatic Department of the Museum of the Lubomirski Dukes in the Ossolineum

Abstract

In accordance with the legal provision on the manufacture and destruction of official seals, in force in the Polish People's Republic since 1955, seal matrices that had been withdrawn from use were returned by official bearers to the State Mint for disposal. In 1975, the Ossoliński National Institute, as an institution where historical seals were also collected, petitioned the government to stop the execution of the statutory order to destroy the seal matrices of county offices - eliminated as a result of the current administrative reform - and transfer them to the institution's collection for ownership. Following a positive response from the Polish Peopple’s Republic authorities, nearly 3,000 seals used by county offices and other local authorities in the period 1945–1975 (with exceptions until 1977) ended up in the Numismatic Department of the Ossolineum. The article takes a closer look at this little-known episode in the history of official sphragistics of the Polish People's Republic, outlining its genesis, course and outcome, while discussing the legal conditions for the production and destruction of official seal matrices during the Second Republic and the Polish People's Republic. In the second part of the text, based on the literature on the subject, the few preserved archival sources, and on the basis of the sphragistic material itself, so numerous in one collection, and thus constituting a representative value for the present research, reference is made to various issues relevant to sphragistics in the context of the State Mint as a manufacturer: the form and content of seals, the technique of manufacture, the material, the dimensions of the various elements of the matrices, signs and identifying features, heraldic issues.