500 Zlotys

The 500 Złotych of 1990 belongs to the final chapter of communist-era Polish banknote design — issued just as the Balcerowicz Plan's "shock therapy" reforms were dismantling the old monetary order. Hyperinflation had already savaged purchasing power so badly that this denomination, once meaningful, was functionally trivial by the time notes reached circulation. The entire series was withdrawn and replaced within a few years as part of the 1995 redenomination, when 10,000 old złotych became 1 new złoty.

Andrzej Heidrich designed virtually the entire Polish banknote series of this period — a near-monopoly on national paper currency design that lasted decades.