50 Zlotys

This is one of several denominations issued by the Narodowy Bank Polski in 1944 as Soviet forces advanced through eastern Poland and the communist-backed Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) established a parallel administration in Lublin. The notes were printed in the USSR and introduced alongside the new political order — not by the London-based Polish government-in-exile, which continued issuing its own currency. Two incompatible Polish monetary systems existed simultaneously, which tells you everything about the political fracture of that moment.

The series is sometimes called the "lubelskie" notes after the Lublin administration that backed them. Soviet-printed Polish currency from this period is notoriously prone to foxing and paper degradation.