Description and research notes
Discovery AR-prefix red-overprint specimen of the 50 Zlotych banknote from the 1994 Polish issue, bearing serial number AR0000000. This piece documents an AR-prefix specimen form with red SPECIMEN overprint, red oval NO VALUE stamps, punch cancellations, and De La Rue specimen-control number 005 in the lower tracking panel. It is not recorded in Milczak or Pick and belongs to the same discovery-level AR-prefix production group as the AR approval specimen.
The face preserves the complete final production design prepared for the National Bank of Poland. It shows the portrait of King Casimir III the Great, the Polish eagle, the vertical denomination text "PIECDZIESIAT ZLOTYCH," the large vertical 50 value device, the National Bank of Poland title, the Warsaw date of 25 March 1994, and the printed signatures of Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz and Wieslaw Biernatowicz. The underlying note is a fully printed production-standard 50 Zlotych design, not a partial or simplified mock-up.
The AR0000000 serial is the central prefix diagnostic. The zero serial confirms specimen status, while the AR prefix identifies this as part of a previously undocumented specimen-control group for the 1994 50 Zlotych issue. The red diagonal SPECIMEN overprint, paired red oval NO VALUE stamps, and round punch cancellations permanently remove the note from monetary use while preserving the complete design for reference and presentation purposes.
The lower tracking panel carries De La Rue specimen-control number 005, a unique control reference assigned to this red-overprint specimen. This number is part of the object's identity, not a generic background marking. Together with the AR0000000 serial, red SPECIMEN overprint, oval NO VALUE stamps, and punch cancellations, it shows the note as a formally controlled security-printer specimen rather than a loose sample or later cancellation.
The note was produced by Thomas De La Rue in London for the National Bank of Poland during the production and approval period for the 1994 issue. The security design by Andrzej Heidrich includes the portrait of King Casimir III the Great, Gothic ornamental structure, layered guilloche fields, micro-patterned value panels, and the multitone watermark portrait visible in the unprinted field. The red-overprint treatment preserves the issued-style design while converting the note into a controlled specimen reference object.
As a fully printed AR-prefix specimen with red SPECIMEN overprint, red oval NO VALUE stamps, punch cancellations, De La Rue specimen-control number 005, zero serial number, and Thomas De La Rue production origin, this piece is a museum-grade survivor from the creation of modern Polish paper money. Its significance is not only rarity, but documentation: it records, with images, a physical AR-prefix red-overprint specimen form that standard catalogs did not document and gives this specimen type its proper place as discovery-level production material.