10 Zlotych Polskich - Alexander I

Issued under the short-lived Kingdom of Poland, a constitutional monarchy created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and placed under Russian imperial rule with Alexander I as king. The arrangement was always uneasy — Alexander had promised a liberal constitution, which he largely honored in the early years, but tensions with the Sejm grew steadily through the 1820s. These coins were struck at Warsaw under that fractious political settlement, less than a decade before the November Uprising of 1830 dismantled what remained of Polish autonomy and prompted Nicholas I to abolish the kingdom's constitution entirely.

The .868 fineness is notably below standard for major European silver coinage of the period, a deliberate choice reflecting Russian monetary policy applied to the Polish treasury.