Szeląg litewski - Jan II Kazimierz Waza Ujazdów mint

The boratynki — as these copper szelągi were popularly known, after the mint contractor Titus Livius Boratini — were struck under a Crown contract granted in 1659 as an emergency fiscal measure, flooding the Commonwealth with low-value copper coinage to fund the interminable wars against Muscovy and Sweden. Boratini's Ujazdów facility, operating just outside Warsaw, was one of several mints he ran simultaneously, and the arrangement proved immediately controversial: the coins were undervalued in metal content by design, and the population recognized it quickly.

Widespread refusal to accept them at face value triggered riots in several cities by the early 1660s. The Sejm ultimately moved to suppress further production, though enormous quantities had already entered circulation.