Banknote Database made by collectors, for collectors

Copernicus

June 4, 2023 @ 20:33

Nicolas Copernicus is known mostly for being a famous astronomer but he was also a prominent economist who advocated for a centralized monetary policy. Maybe looking at stars gave him ideas on money? He was supposed to be on a commemorative banknote to be released in 2022, the bank's schedule of future releases (if you dig around on archive.org) gave a release date of late 2022. That all changed when Belarus decided to toss busloads of migrants and refugees at the border as a political stunt. Poland bumped Copernicus in favor of the "Protecting our Eastern Border" commemorative note. His likeness has been placed on Polish currency repeatedly and through various governments and eras. He first appeared on a "ticket" in 1924 as a statue. During this time, Poland issued tickets, not actual banknotes, as substitutes for the coins they couldn't afford to make. He then appeared on a silver coin in 1925 during the interwar period. Designed by Stanisław Szukalski, the coin won a design competition that paid very well. Copernicus then became cemented into the public consciousness, until the 1990s, as a figure that was "lucky" on currency. Something the astronomer may have liked very well. Copernicus showed up again in 1957 after a competition to design a 10 złoty coin was won by Józef Gosławski, who used the source material that would later show up on banknotes. The coin was introduced to the public in 1959 and was the most used in the country during that time period. Finally for coins, Copernicus showed up on a commemorative coin in 1973, the 500th anniversary of his birth. This is why it makes so much more sense to release a Copernicus commemorative banknote in 2023, rather than 2022 - so the whole Belarus border issue sort of worked out, at least in terms of commemorations. He became one of the most frequently used personalities on Polish money from 1965 when he appeared on the 1,000 złoty note designed by Julian Pałka and Henryk Tomaszewski, shown here, which was released in October 1965.

Poland's 1965 Copernicus "cinema ticket" banknote. Modern in design, the theme was only used one time. 

The design followed a competition that saw 14 finalists, and Copernicus came out on top likely because of his familiarity from the popular coin. The issue coincided with the end of the 6 year long celebration commmemorating the millennium of the Polish State. The 1966 release banknote was used until the end of 1978. The face of the banknote featured a likeness of Copernicus modeled on a portrait by Jeremiah Falch in 1644. While there was only one known portrait of Copernicus made during his lifetime, many came later that essentially copied that one. The reverse features a variation on the heliocentric model published by cartographer Andreas Cellarius in 1661. The banknote was very modern and used new fonts, bold colors, and a smaller size. It was often compared by locals to a cinema ticket or a sticker, and the design wasn't universally popular. Despite that, it won design awards overseas, being named "best banknote" by the American magazine World Coins. During the mid 1970s the government wanted new banknote designs and asked designer Andrzej Heidrich to develop new ones that had a clear national character and used the theme of "Great Poles throughout history". There is only one verified contemporary painting of Copernicus, and that's the one that shows up here, instead of a later copy of the original portrait.  In the source imagery he has strange asymmetrical eyes, with his left eye much lower than the right. The portrait was painted in Copernicus' hometown of Torun by an anonymous painter. Heidrich designed several mock-ups of banknotes throughout the 1970s but his third was the only one put into circulation. The bank made him go back and straighten out the astronomer's eyes. The 1,000 złoty note was released in July 1975. The reverse again featured a stylized representation of Cellarius' engraving of the heliocentric solar system. The 1975 designs were used until 1995 when economic factors forced the country to redenominate the złoty. Much like other countries, the personalities on the banknotes became liabilities when the currency became essentially worthless. Polish banknotes were redenominated losing 4 zeroes, so Copernicus on the 1,000 was suddenly worth 0.1 złoty. The next major series of notes featuring Polish monarchs were printed by De La Rue in London before PWPW took over a few years later.

The crooked eyes returned in 2023, correcting the leveled eyes on the 1975 note. 

Copernicus was missing from Polish banknotes for almost 30 years, with many having a memory of his image being completely worthless and a symbol of great monetary loss and national humiliation. Poland has a history of claiming its diaspora or people who may or may not have identified as Polish on money, such as Marie Curie. Copernicus was born to German parents, spoke German at home, and no surviving texts survive from him in Polish. He was, however, a subject of the Polish crown and that probably counts. With Poland's history, it's difficult to identify historical figures as having any recognizable nationality in the first place. Copernicus' visage returned to banknotes in 2023 for a polymer commemorative banknote after PWPW was asked by the national bank to include him. Again, he got bumped for a year after a stunt by Belarus. The banknote was designed at PWPW in Warsaw by artist Krystian Michalczuk, who was also responsible for the 2016 commemorative "Mieszko I" note. Michalczuk describes himself as a huge fan of astronomy and was excited to be able to design the note. The first noticable aspect of the new design are the strong colors, which the artist describes as a representation of green, for the earth and blue for the heavens. An allegory to Copernicus' studies of the stars. The top pattern comes from the Copernicus tenement house in Torun. Poland's PWPW partnered with Australia's CCL Secure for both the Guardian polymer substrate and the Cinema feature, which shows multiple images of earth rotating around the sun. The cinema feature is impossible to capture with an image (so, I guess that means it's a great security feature) but is pretty interesting and allows for the illusion of 10mm depth so it looks as if you're viewing something through a portal. The smaller window contains a VIVID color feature motif showing the solar system. The designer briefly considered including Lilies of the Valley, a medieval medical symbol, in the design but dropped them. The reverse features coins from Gdansk and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (szóstak gdanski i elbląski) and a Prussian Shilling. The coins serve to tie the design to Poland's regular issue banknotes which, while not featuring coins, are heavily inspired by them. The design cements Poland's pioneering use of the "special raster" microprinting technique, something they debuted in 2016. The special raster forms a continuous background of microprint only visible at high magnification and presents a series of thematically linked elements nested in larger elements that covers almost the entire note. Below is a small sample of the special raster on the Copernicus note. "NBP" for the bank, Copernicus' name, the denomination, stars, planets with rings, a very tiny happy face if you look close enough, and many other things. Poland's national bank often announces their annual commemorative banknote issues in advance, but as of today we're not sure what the next one will be.