500 Zlotys

These notes — called "insurekcyjne" by contemporaries — were issued during the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794, the doomed Polish insurrection against the partitioning powers. The Supreme National Council had no functioning banking infrastructure and desperately needed to fund an army in the field; paper money was the only practical answer, however unwelcome to a population that had never trusted it. The Treasury Department issued this 500 Złoty denomination as part of a series running from 5 to 1000 Złotych, backed by nothing more than the Council's authority and the slim hope of military success.

Michał Gröll, the Warsaw-based publisher and bookseller who engraved the plates, was an unusual choice — a craftsman of books, not currency. The uprising collapsed by November 1794, and the notes became worthless almost immediately upon Russian suppression of the insurrection.