5 Zlotys

Issued by the Kasa Biletów Skarbowych — the Treasury Note Office established by the Kościuszko Uprising government in the summer of 1794 — this note belongs to Poland's first modern paper currency issue. The uprising against Prussian and Russian partition required rapid war financing, and these treasury bills were produced in Warsaw under siege conditions, drawing on a population being asked to fund a national insurrection with its own pocket money.

The dry seal and watermark represent a serious attempt at security for the period, though the notes circulated during a crisis that ended with the Third Partition and the effective erasure of the Polish state in October 1794. Most surviving examples have seen heavy use.