The 5 Złotych Rybak — the fisherman type — entered regular circulation in 1958 struck in aluminum-bronze, making this 1959 nickel trial strike a metallurgical experiment that never advanced to production. Poland's post-Stalinist monetary reforms under Gomułka's government drove repeated composition testing throughout the late 1950s as the authorities sought cheaper, more durable alloys for high-turnover denominations. Nickel was ultimately rejected for this value, likely on cost grounds.
The Fischer and ParM references both catalog this as an essai variant, with surviving population almost certainly in single digits.
The 5 Złotych Rybak — the fisherman type — entered regular circulation in 1958 struck in aluminum-bronze, making this 1959 nickel trial strike a metallurgical experiment that never advanced to production. Poland's post-Stalinist monetary reforms under Gomułka's government drove repeated composition testing throughout the late 1950s as the authorities sought cheaper, more durable alloys for high-turnover denominations. Nickel was ultimately rejected for this value, likely on cost grounds.
The Fischer and ParM references both catalog this as an essai variant, with surviving population almost certainly in single digits.