Catalog
20 000 Zlotys
| Issuer | Narodowy Bank Polski (National Bank of Poland) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1989 |
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| Printer | Polish Security Printing Works (Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych S.A.), Warsaw, Poland, Poland (1919-date) |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette presents a portrait of Maria Skłodowska-Curie, the celebrated Polish physicist and chemist renowned for her pioneering research on radioactivity, for which she was awarded two Nobel Prizes. The denomination and issuer's name appear in intaglio lettering against a multicolour guilloche underprint. The overall design reflects a formal academic aesthetic appropriate to the subject's historical stature. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
By 1989, Polish inflation was accelerating toward hyperinflation — the 20,000 złoty note, a denomination unthinkable a decade earlier, was already losing purchasing power faster than it could be distributed. The following year, 500,000 and 1,000,000 złoty notes entered circulation. This entire series was eventually rendered obsolete by the 1995 redenomination, which lopped four zeros off the currency and introduced the "new złoty" at 10,000 old to one.
The PWPW Warsaw printing attribution here is straightforward — unlike several earlier NBP issues that relied on foreign security printers, by this period domestic production was standard.