Catalog
500 Zlotys
| Issuer | Departament Skarbowy Rady Najwyższej Narodowej (Treasury Department of the Supreme National Council) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1794 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#A6 |
| Obverse description | The upper portion bears a decorative typographic ornament flanked by the coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at centre-top, with the denomination and full legislative text set in period letterpress typography below. Darker ornamental borders frame the left, right, and lower margins, and an embossed dry official seal is struck between the body text and the manuscript signatures at the foot of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed on orange-tinted paper with a plain rectangular border rule framing the entire field. The reverse is otherwise unprinted, save for an embossed circular dry stamp visible at lower centre and manuscript signatures bleeding through from the obverse at top and bottom. |
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| Comments |
These notes — called "insurekcyjne" by contemporaries — were issued during the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794, the doomed Polish insurrection against the partitioning powers. The Supreme National Council had no functioning banking infrastructure and desperately needed to fund an army in the field; paper money was the only practical answer, however unwelcome to a population that had never trusted it. The Treasury Department issued this 500 Złoty denomination as part of a series running from 5 to 1000 Złotych, backed by nothing more than the Council's authority and the slim hope of military success.
Michał Gröll, the Warsaw-based publisher and bookseller who engraved the plates, was an unusual choice — a craftsman of books, not currency. The uprising collapsed by November 1794, and the notes became worthless almost immediately upon Russian suppression of the insurrection.