Poland: A zloty is a zloty, no?

[Figleaf]

Polish Coin Fraud
By Victoria Ziarkowski, Warsaw, 15 January 2010

A Polish shopkeeper lost 49.95 PLN on a sale worth 10 PLN when he took a coin that was issued by the People's Republic of Poland.

A shopper bought 10 PLN worth of goods in a small shop. The shopkeeper was given a 50 PLN coin that he did not recognize. The buyer explained that a new monetary system had been introduced and the coin was a new addition to the the system.

The shopkeeper gave the shopper his 40 PLN change and the shopper casually left.


Only after the shopper was out of sight did the shop keep notice the coin was produced under the People's Republic of Poland.

He was told the coin's current value is 5 polish groszy, about 1.5 US cents.

It is in fact a special edition collection coin from 1981 with a portrait of an 11th century Polish duke on the back. An online coin collecting circle values it at 8 PLN, and an eBay UK seller started bids for this coin at .99 GBP.

The swindler remains at large and if caught he faces up to 8 years imprisonment.

Source: The Outlook

[chrisild]

Odd story. Judging from the article, it is obvious that the customer did not accidentally use the coin but wanted to cheat. On the other hand ... the shopkeeper had apparently noticed that there was "something" about this coin but still accepted it? The highest denomination among Polish circulation coins is the 5 zł piece, and all of a sudden a coin with ten times that value is introduced, dated 1981 ... suuure.

Christian

[translateltd]

It does tend to confirm that people don't look closely at the actual words and numbers on their coins, except maybe the denomination.

[ciscoins]

Russian banknotes of 1995 issue (before the currency reform) and 1997 issue (after the reform) have almost the same design but different sizes and colours. A foreigner who has never seen a new Russian 5000 roubles banknote (about USD 170), may easily become some swindler's victim who can give him an old 5000 roubles banknote (about USD 4-8 in collectors state). Please be careful.

http://molotok.ru/item887150731_5000_rublej_1995_az_aunc.html
http://cbr.ru/eng/bank-notes_coins/bank-notes/main.asp?file=priznak_5000_eng/Opisan_5000_eng.html