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Poland's Eastern Border Banknote
November 1, 2022 @ 22:05
Poland’s National Bank pushes out a commemorative banknote just about every year, and this is the newest one at the time of writing. It's 20 złotych and commemorates the protection of Poland's Eastern Border.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, Belarus shipped migrants to the Polish border and it was a huge worldwide story. The bank decided to reinforce a theme of national security on the commemorative banknote issued for 2022, and they decided this only around Christmas 2021. The 2022 commemorative banknote was meant to be about Nicholas Copernicus and would have come out this month (November 2022). He was bumped to 2023 in order to release this border security banknote. It makes more sense to release Copernicus in 2023 anyway, it’s the 550th anniversary year of his birth. His note currently scheduled for February. The boundary banknote was released in July 2022 after a design and print period of an absurdly short 6 months.
Designed by Agnieszka Próchniak and Justyna Kopecka (the latter designed Poland’s previous commemorative note). The muted color scheme refers to the uniform colors of the border guards, honored here for their defense of the border during the Belarus-Poland migrant crisis. The fact that Russia invaded Ukraine during the release was coincidental, but bittersweet in that Poland’s eastern border is an artificial construct of Russia’s precursor nation. The reverse features a Sikorsky S-70i Blackhawk helicopter, assembled in Mielec, Poland. The helicopter (SN 71XP) is hovering over the border town of Białowieża . The obverse features two border guards, and both sides register the outline of Poland’s eastern border. The microprint is stuffed with tiny symbols relating to the border. Including boundary posts, and the initials and symbols of the border guard Straż Graniczna.
Próchniak has earlier designed two commemorative notes, that of Marie Curie in 2011 and the 2018 note celebrating Independence. The design deliberately omits any specific people, but instead celebrates three organizations responsible for guarding the border. Along with Border Guard, the Army, and the Police. The microtext within them spells out the oaths taken by border guard, police, and army officers when they are sworn in. The banknote was initially meant to be more colorful, with a red and white boundary post and blue uniform accents, but was toned down later in the design phase to match the border guard's uniform colors and fabric patterns. The UV element, shown in bright red, is of a red border post. I would also bet that the very short design and print period meant that new security features could not be showcased from the printer, PWPW. This banknote excels with elements of microrprint and incorporating geography into design, but mostly fails in being colorful. The tone is meant to be serious, so maybe the muted colors are appropriate.
Below are two examples of the excellent microprinting pattern, here showing the coat of arms and the name of the border guard. Below that, portions of the oath and the pattern of certain armed forces uniforms.
