Mint coin graded MS62 by NGC.
A copy with an intensely preserved background glow.
The collapse of the Napoleonic system in Europe, which began with Napoleon's defeat in the Moscow campaign in 1812, had direct consequences for further events in Krakow and its surroundings. After Russia occupied the former areas of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1813, Tsar Alexander I planned to maintain control over all of Poland, including Krakow, the former heart of the Jagiellon dynasty.
From May 1813 to October 1815, Kraków was under Russian occupation, retaining its formal affiliation to the Duchy of Warsaw and applying Napoleonic-era law. The city government and the department's prefecture were controlled by the provisional Ministry of Internal Affairs, acting under the authority of the Russian Supreme National Council. It is interesting that neither the Russian occupation, nor the Congress of Vienna, nor even the liquidation of the Duchy of Warsaw itself interrupted the activities of the City Council in Krakow.
According to Michał Bączkowski, the existence of such a council was beneficial to the Russian authorities because they did not interfere in everyday management at this level, and the presence of such an institution reduced the resistance of the local population to foreign administration. The council remained loyal to the new authorities, even though some of its members had Napoleonic sympathies, which weakened with Napoleon's subsequent defeats.
The last meeting of the Council took place on November 9, 1815, after the decision to create the Free City of Krakow. In November of the same year, the functions of the City Council and the prefecture of the department were temporarily taken over by the Organizational Commission, but in practice it did not play a major role in managing the city, because on November 20 of the same year the first meeting of the Governing Senate of the Free City of Krakow was held, which dealt with the management of both Krakow. , as well as a new state. According to M. Bączkowski, the formal status of the city was not fully clear in the fall of 1815. Although the Duchy of Warsaw was formally abolished and Kraków became a Free City, the new status still required clarification.
