5 Cents Foreign Exchange Certificate

Bank Pekao's Foreign Exchange Certificates were introduced in 1960 as a mechanism for the Polish state to capture hard currency from citizens receiving remittances from abroad — dollars, marks, pounds — without allowing those currencies to circulate freely. The certificates were issued in exchange for foreign cash surrendered at official rates and could then be spent at Pewex stores, the hard-currency retail chain that stocked Western goods unavailable in the standard socialist economy.

The 5-cent denomination is the smallest in the series, reflecting that even fractional transactions at Pewex needed to balance precisely. Holders had every incentive to spend rather than save them — the certificates carried no interest and no guarantee of future redemption value.