‘Old’ zloty coins and banknotes issued before the currency’s redenomination in 1995 can still be exchanged until the end of this year.
All coins and banknotes can be traded in at local branches of Poland’s central bank in cities across the country. From 2011, any old coins and banknotes will become collectors’ items.
To mark the end of the old zloty, the National Bank of Poland has also teamed up with the Caritas charity, whereby old coins and banknotes can also be donated for needy schoolchildren across Poland.
2 million old zloty = 200 new zloty
Everyone’s a millionaire
Due to hyperinflation seen at the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s after Poland made the move to a market-based economy, the old Polish zloty had four zeros ‘cut off’. The exchange to the new currency (from PLZ to PLN) cost 300 million new zloty, with new banknotes issued from 1994.
Before the redenomination, it was not uncommon to purchase items using million zloty bills, or even 2 million zloty bills. In around 1994, the exchange rate between the old zloty and the US dollar stood at 22,000 PLZ, with the British pound at around 35,000 PLZ. (jb)