100 Zlotys Tadeusz Kościuszko, Trial Strike

Trial strikes from Mennica Polska in the mid-1970s occupy an awkward bureaucratic space — produced for internal approval and ministry review under the centralized economic apparatus of the Polish People's Republic, not for collectors or commerce. Most were retained by the mint or distributed within state channels, which explains why survivors appear so infrequently in Western auction records.

Kościuszko's selection for the 100 Złotych denomination was politically deliberate: his 1794 uprising and American Revolutionary service made him acceptable to both nationalist sentiment and socialist historiography simultaneously.