1 Dollar Foreign Exchange Certificate

Pewex — the state-run hard currency retail chain — was the primary circulation point for these certificates. The Polish government created this parallel currency system to capture foreign exchange held by citizens receiving remittances from relatives abroad, principally in the United States. Rather than letting dollars circulate informally, the state funneled them through Pekao SA, which issued these certificates redeemable only at Pewex stores stocking Western goods unavailable through normal socialist retail channels.

The certificates were not legal tender and could not be exchanged back into dollars. That asymmetry was the whole point.