Ad from my UK newspaper today : not worth a zloty

Euro 2012 fans in Poland are to be given guides identifying out-of-date bank notes that conmen are expected to flood the country with during the tournament.

Polish banks - which have produced half a million leaflets - say they expect drunken fans to be targeted by crooks palming them off with worthless zloty.

Really?
News to me. What does the newspaper mean out-of-date zlotys. I new there was an old zloty which has been replaced by a new zloty.

But that was years ago.

I am going to Warsaw for the Euros. If i go to a kantor then i should be fine?
And i dont intend to be drunk either.

Anyone else with info on this?

Kantors are fine, they're not going to risk their licence to cheat you on a 100 euro.
You'll be fine too as long as you use kantors, ATMs and banks. The warning is directed to people who might want to change money in a street outside of a bar when they get short of cash for another drink.

Ok cheers.

But what exactly are the conmen doing?

Are they using old zlotys?

Surely they will look totally different?

Are the old zlotys not from the 90's

They could use the pre-1995 banknotes which are no longer valid. In 1995 the currency was denominated by 1:10 000 ratio (10 000 old złotys = 1 PLN, or new złoty), and new banknotes came into use.

The current banknotes:

Anything other than these is a scam.

Polish bank notes:

Polish coins:



- all bank notes and coins MUST have an eagle with a crown - old PRL ones had an eagle without a crown
- no coins in current circulation are made of pure aluminium or silver or have a nominal higher than 5 zł (coins with higher nominals are only struck in silver or gold for collectors/investors and nobody sane would use them to pay in everyday transactions, since the intrinsic value of precious metal they're made of is much higher).

I read of someone tricking a shop assistant into accepting this 30 lat prl silver coin here - its nominal is 200 _old_ złotych, its (numismatic) value is about 35 new zł.

Sure but a drunk guy, who came to Poland several hours before may not be aware that something is wrong.


Yes people still have a lot of old banknotes, I personally have at least a thousand of them.

And here you can see the pre-1995 money: mmbialystok.pl/artykul/zdjecie-banknot-przed-denominacja-5#photo

This was my favourite: mmbialystok.pl/artykul/zdjecie-banknot-przed-denominacja-20#photo

Checking Polish money is not counterfeit

Just found this on the Bank of Poland's website in English - good for visitors for Euro 2012 as gives some guidance on how to detect and avoid fake banknotes.

Downloadable PDF

nbp.pl/en/banknoty/zabezpieczenia_en.pdf

Some of the advice from the PDF:-

ok thanks for the all the information.

one more question.

i have been to poland a few times now and cannot remember too much about the money exactly.

Is a 200 zloty note the highest value????

doesnt seem much for your countrys highest valued note

it is £100 in the uk which would be the equivalent of 600 zloty

cheers again

yes, but try to avoid them. shops never seem to have change when they are proffered

As far as I know only Scotland has a £100 note in circulation. The highest in the rest of the UK is £50.

Nitpicking Vincent, but the Bank of Ireland, First Trust Bank and Dansk Bank all issue £100 notes as well.

I was never particularly keen on them, though. I once got paid for a summer of work in them, and it was a nightmare to break them.