page_title: Polish złoty
section_title: Kingdom of Poland and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
hierarchical_section_title: Polish złoty / First złoty / Kingdom of Poland and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Półtalar_gdański_1577r_Talleman.jpg
context_page_description: The złoty is the official currency and legal tender of Poland. It is subdivided into 100 grosz. The widely recognised English form of the currency is the Polish zloty. It is the most traded currency in Central Europe and ranks 22nd in the foreign exchange market.
  The word złoty is a masculine form of the Polish adjective 'golden', which closely relates with its name to the Dutch guilder, whereas the grosz subunit was based on Austrian groschen. It was officially introduced to replace its predecessor, the Polish marka, on 28 February 1919 and began circulation in 1924. The only body permitted to manufacture or mint złoty coins is Mennica Polska, founded in Warsaw on 10 February 1766.
  As a result of inflation in the early 1990s, the currency underwent redenomination. Thus, on 1 January 1995, 10,000 old złoty became one new złoty. Since then, the currency has been relatively stable, with an exchange rate fluctuating between 3 and 4 złoty for a United States dollar. Though Poland is a member of the European Union, nearly 60% of Poles are strongly against replacing the złoty with the euro.
context_section_description: The złoty (golden) is a traditional Polish currency unit dating back to the late Middle Ages. Initially, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the name was used for all kinds of foreign gold coins used in Poland, most notably Venetian and Hungarian ducats, (however, in provinces Volyn & Galicia the name for them were the золотий (zolotiy) - golden). One złoty at the very beginning of their introduction cost 12–14 grosz; however, grosz had less and less silver as time passed. In 1496 the Sejm approved the creation of a national currency, the złoty, and its value was set at 30 grosz, a coin minted since 1347 and modelled on the Prague groschen, and a ducat (florin), whose value was ​1 ¹⁄₂ złoty. The 1:30 proportion stayed (​¹⁄₂ of a kopa), but the grosz became cheaper and cheaper, because the proportion of silver in the coin alloy diminished over time. In the beginning of the 16th century, 1 złoty was worth 32 grosz; by the middle of the same century it was 50 grosz; by the reign of Sigismund III Vasa 1 złoty was worth 90 grosz while a ducat was worth 180 grosz.
  The name złoty (sometimes referred to as the florin) was used for a number of different coins, including the 30-grosz coin called the polski złoty, the czerwony złoty (red złoty) and the złoty reński (the Rhine guilder), which were in circulation at the time. However, the value of the Polish złoty dropped over time relative to these foreign coins, and it became a silver coin, with the foreign ducats eventually circulating at approximately 5 złoty.
  The matters were complicated by the extremely intricate system of coins, with denominations as low as ​ ¹⁄₃ grosz and as high as 12,960 grosz fit into one coin. There were no usual decimal denominations we use today: the system used 4, 6, 8, 9 and 18 grosz, which are now most uncommon. Moreover, there was no central mint, and, apart from Warsaw mint, there were the Gdańsk, Elbląg and Kurland (Riga) separate mints which did not produce the same denomination coins with the same materials. For example, the szeląg had 1.3g of copper while minted in either Kraków or Warsaw, but the local Gdańsk and Elbląg mints made it using only 0.63g of copper. This facilitated forgeries and wrought havoc in the Polish monetary system.
  Following the monetary reform carried out by King Stanisław II Augustus which aimed to simplify the system, the złoty became Poland's official currency and the exchange rate of 1 złoty to 30 copper grosz was confirmed. The king established the system which was based on the Cologne mark (233.855 g of pure silver). Each mark was divided into 10 Conventionsthaler of the Holy Roman Empire, and 1 thaler was worth 8 złoty (consequently, 1 złoty was worth 4 silver grosz). The system was in place until 1787. Two devaluations of the currency occurred in the years before the final partition of Poland.
  After the third partition of Poland, the name złoty existed only in Austrian and Russian lands. Prussia had introduced the mark instead.
caption: Półtalar of Gdańsk, 1577
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