20 Zlotys WW2 Polish Government in Exile

Bank Polski's wartime exile series was authorized by the Polish government reconstituted in France and later London after the September 1939 collapse. This note was printed by the American Bank Note Company well after Poland itself had ceased to function as a sovereign state — a government ordering currency from New York while its territory was under joint German-Soviet occupation.

The notes were never issued into general circulation. They remained largely in storage and were intended for use following an anticipated liberation that, for most of the war's duration, remained distant. P#87 is consequently found in high grades with some regularity, which is unusual for a wartime emission from a country that effectively ceased to exist at the moment of printing.