The early years of the People's Republic of Poland - already after the "political thaw" of 1956 - are a period of "looking for a way" to what Polish means of payment of general circulation should look like.
In the late 1950s and in the 1960s, numerous competitions are held for the design of new types of coins and banknotes. Banknotes in circulation at the time include a Socialist Realist issue dated 1948 depicting "working people."
It was then, after 1956, that the NBP entrusted a pre-war designer - Ryszard Kleczewski - to design a new series of four banknotes with denominations of 20, 50, 100 and 500 zlotys. The artist decided to commemorate great Poles on this issue, and depict buildings associated with them on the reverses.
However, the designed issue was not put into circulation, and the realized proofs penetrated the collector's market only in a few, individual pieces. They were more extensively studied by Jerzy Koziczynski in the catalog of the Lucow Collection, Volume VI.
The subject of this auction is the lowest denomination of the issue, which depicts Jan Matejko on the obverse and the Kraków Cloth Hall on the reverse.
It is a color sample realized with advanced printing techniques, with an intaglio print of the main layer of the obverse. It testifies to the advanced stage of work that the realization of this series has reached.
In the collector's trade, these banknotes are practically non-existent, and the only pieces known to us that are in private hands are collected as part of the Lucow Collection.
The present piece is the first and only one we have encountered on the collector's market!
Condition of preservation without remarks.
A very rare and impressive item.
Recommended.
