1 Zloty small type

The small-type aluminium zloty was issued in the final months of the Polish People's Republic, a state that ceased to exist in December 1989 when the Sejm formally restored the name "Republic of Poland." Coins dated 1990 were therefore struck under one political order and circulated under another. Rampant inflation during this transition was rendering low-denomination aluminium pieces effectively worthless even as they were being minted — the zloty would eventually be redenominated at 10,000:1 in 1995.