Rare PRL-era 10-groszy coin sells for staggering PLN 33,000
A communist-era coin with a face value of just 10 grosze (around €0,22) recently fetched a dizzying price of PLN 33,00 at auction making it the most expensive coin from that epoch ever sold.
The coin from 1973 was sold a few days ago at an auction run by Marciniak Dom Aukcyjny. With the auctioneer’s fee on top, the final price reached PLN 38,940.
The key to the coin's value is that it does not bear the tiny symbol of the Polish mint in Warsaw under the eagle’s right leg. The omission makes it a rarity among collectors.
Minted in about 80 million copies, for years it was treated as a low-value piece of metal.
The key to the coin's value is that it does not bear the tiny symbol of the Polish mint in Warsaw under the eagle’s right leg. The omission makes it a rarity among collectors.
According to Damian Marciniak, coins with such a flaw are the rarest from the communist era and as such they fetch the highest prices at auction.
According to Damian Marciniak, coins with such a flaw are the rarest from the communist era and as such they fetch the highest prices at auction.
The previous record for a PRL coin was set in April 2020, when the same type of 10-grosze coin was sold for PLN 29,900.
Damian Marciniak, owner of the auction house, said: "We absolutely did not think that it would go above the previous record, assuming that that one was already high enough to be difficult to repeat."
The owner of the coin received it from a relative as part of a collection of coins neatly arranged in a coin collector’s album.
The owner of the coin received it from a relative as part of a collection of coins neatly arranged in a coin collector’s album.
Marciniak suggests that this should pour cold water over the gold-rush-like search for similar coins which has since spread across the country, with people hoping to get rich quick.
Marciniak explained in YouTube video that although there may be other coins with the same rare feature, it is unlikely that anyone will find one in the back of a drawer at home.
He explained that in the 1970s, the mint in Warsaw may have ordered coins from a mint in another Eastern-bloc country, or it may have carried out a test-run of coins resulting in a batch without the mint's symbol.
Marciniak explained in YouTube video that although there may be other coins with the same rare feature, it is unlikely that anyone will find one in the back of a drawer at home.
He said that these were never released into circulation. However, in the 1990s, the mint sold batches of coins to coin dealers and the coins ended up among collectors in this way.
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in interest among collectors in coins and banknotes from the time of the People’s Republic in Poland.
An exceptionally rare 1966 ten-zloty coin with Zygmunt’s column reached a price of PLN 10,000, three times more than the asking price.
