The first subdenomination bills of the Third Republic were issued with a date of March 25, 1994. They were put into circulation on January 1, 1995.
The subject of this auction is a proof print of the portrait of King Sigismund I the Old, as seen on the 200 zloty banknote.
The print was made in 1:1 scale, using intaglio technique, monochromatically in black on cardboard paper. The correspondence of both drawing, scale and technique allows us to assume that this is a print from the final matrix.
It is framed in passe-partout and bears two signatures and the date 20.07.1994. This date highlights and documents the period of work on the 1994 Polish issue at TDLR. It is after the issue date shown on the banknotes (the same was true of the emigration issue), but before the banknotes were put into circulation. One of the signatures (black) belongs to the designer of the banknote: Andrzej Heidrich. The other signed person - judging by the nature of the handwriting also wrote down the date - remains anonymous to us. Most likely, it is someone from the British Thomas De La Rue label, which was preparing and printing our banknotes at the time (until 1998, when the printing was taken over by PWPW).
The year 2024, coinciding with 30 years after the printing of the 1994 issue, brought the appearance on the English auction market of interesting and unique archival items documenting the technological beginnings of our banknotes. This is probably related to the grace period of the English TDLR archives, as a result of which, among other things, completely unknown, rare technological designs, or just this intaglio proof portrait print, have appeared on the market.
This print comes from an earlier public offering by a British auction house. It is very likely a unique item, and perhaps even the only one made in this form for acceptance purposes.
History shows that moments when items from printers' archives appear on the market are worth taking advantage of to add unique qualities to the collection. We have already had such situations, when proofs of 1928 issue, emigration banknotes or Free City of Gdansk banknotes came out of the printing stocks.
The print is bound in passe-partout with outer dimensions of 145 x 163 mm and "window" dimensions of 86 x 91 mm.
Preservation condition of print and passe-partout unchallenged, minor imperfections of cardboard cover only.
