1 Cent (0,01 US$)

Bank Polska Kasa Opieki — PKO — occupied a peculiar institutional position in communist Poland: a state-controlled bank nominally oriented toward the Polish diaspora, allowed to deal in hard Western currency at a time when ordinary Poles had no legal access to dollars. These small-denomination dollar certificates were issued specifically for use in the Pewex network of hard-currency shops, where foreign goods unavailable in the regular socialist retail system could be purchased. The 1 cent value existed because the system was designed to eliminate any excuse for giving change in actual US coins.