Description and research notes
Discovery AR-prefix perforated specimen of the 50 Zlotych banknote from the 1994 Polish issue, bearing serial number AR0000000 and cancelled by a large perforated inscription reading "SPECIMEN OF NO VALUE." This piece documents an AR-prefix perforated specimen form not recorded in Milczak or Pick and belongs to the same discovery-level AR-prefix production group as the AR approval specimen and AR red-overprint 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 remains a fully printed production-standard 50 Zlotych design.
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 perforated SPECIMEN OF NO VALUE cancellation is a permanent physical invalidation method, applied directly through the printed note while leaving the design legible for archival reference.
The handwritten archival notation dated "30.4.96," accompanying initials along the lower margin, and pencil control code at the upper edge are direct traces of De La Rue's internal filing and record-keeping practice. These markings make the piece especially important because they preserve not only the specimen type, but also the handling evidence around the retained control object.
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 perforated cancellation converts the printed note into a permanent archival specimen while preserving the issued-style design underneath.
As a fully printed AR-prefix specimen with SPECIMEN OF NO VALUE perforation, zero serial number, handwritten archival date, printer annotations, Thomas De La Rue production origin, and final issued-style design, 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 perforated specimen form that standard catalogs did not document and gives this specimen type its proper place as discovery-level production material.