100 000 Zlotys Pope John Paul II, Trial Strike

Trial strikes from Mennica Polska in this period were produced for internal approval purposes — submitted to issuing authorities before production authorization, then typically destroyed or retained by the mint. That this example survives in collector hands at all reflects the informal dispersal of proof and pattern material that occurred during Poland's turbulent transition from centralized state control to privatization in the early 1990s. The mint itself was in the process of corporatization throughout 1991.

The denomination — 100,000 złotych — reflects the inflationary environment preceding the 1995 redenomination, which lopped four zeros off the currency.