100 Zlotys Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Trial Strike

Poland's commemorative program of the 1970s operated under the Polish People's Republic, where the state mint produced trial strikes — próby — as internal approval pieces before committing to full production runs. This nickel trial for the Skłodowska-Curie 100 złotych differs from the issued silver version; the metal substitution was standard practice for evaluating die quality and strike characteristics before precious-metal production began. Whether this specific trial influenced the final design or was simply a procedural artifact of the approval process is not recorded in mint documentation available to the trade.