M-1 meat coupon

Poland's 1989 rationing system was already collapsing when these meat coupons were printed. The M-1 designation placed this coupon in the lowest allocation tier — the monthly entitlement it represented had been progressively cut through the 1980s as shortages worsened and the black market absorbed an increasing share of actual meat supply. By mid-1989, the Solidarity-led government that swept the June elections inherited a rationing infrastructure that was functionally obsolete; the coupons were formally discontinued before most of this print run had any practical use.

The watermark is notably sophisticated for an internal commodity voucher — a reflection of how seriously the state took coupon counterfeiting during the shortage years.