1 Dollar Foreign Exchange Certificate

Bank Polska Kasa Opieki — Pekao — was the designated channel through which the Polish state extracted hard currency from its own citizens. These Foreign Exchange Certificates were issued to Poles receiving dollar remittances from abroad, primarily from the large diaspora in the United States. The recipient was paid in certificates rather than actual dollars, which the state retained. Certificates could then be spent only at Pewex hard-currency stores, keeping Western goods accessible without letting real convertible currency circulate freely.

The 1969 series was printed domestically by PWPW in Warsaw — unusual for a instrument whose entire purpose was to simulate dollar credibility.