This is a pattern piece issued in connection with the 1991 papal visit to Poland — John Paul II's fourth trip to his homeland and the first since the fall of communism. The National Bank produced trial strikes in multiple compositions to evaluate design viability before committing to the circulating issue. Nickel proofs of this denomination are among the scarcer variants in that test sequence, with the Fischer and Parchimowicz references diverging slightly on census estimates for surviving examples.
This is a pattern piece issued in connection with the 1991 papal visit to Poland — John Paul II's fourth trip to his homeland and the first since the fall of communism. The National Bank produced trial strikes in multiple compositions to evaluate design viability before committing to the circulating issue. Nickel proofs of this denomination are among the scarcer variants in that test sequence, with the Fischer and Parchimowicz references diverging slightly on census estimates for surviving examples.