1 Cent Foreign Exchange Certificate

Pekao's Foreign Exchange Certificates were introduced in 1960 as a mechanism to capture hard currency from Poles receiving remittances from abroad — predominantly dollars sent by emigres in the United States. Rather than allow foreign currency to circulate or be exchanged at the black-market rate, the state channeled it through Pekao, issuing these certificates redeemable only at Pewex stores for Western goods unavailable through normal socialist retail channels.

The 1-cent denomination is the smallest in the series and existed primarily to account for change in Pewex transactions. Printed by the Polish Security Printing Works (PWPW) in Warsaw, the certificates were not legal tender and carried no exchange guarantee — their value was entirely contingent on what the state chose to stock on Pewex shelves.