200 Zlotys Fryderyk Chopin

Issued to mark the 150th anniversary of Chopin's death, this piece was struck the same year Poland concluded its NATO accession — a coincidence that made 1999 a significant year for Polish commemorative output generally. The National Bank released it alongside a corresponding silver issue, the gold reserved for the collector tier at a mintage kept deliberately low to sustain secondary market premiums.

Chopin died in Paris in October 1849, his body interred at Père Lachaise while his heart was separately smuggled back to Warsaw — reportedly concealed in cognac — and eventually placed in a pillar of the Holy Cross Church, where it remains.