The Large Copernicus is not only one of the icons of the minting of the Second Republic of Poland, but also a coin extremely difficult to acquire.
It's a sought-after proof 100-zloty coin designed by the famous Stanislaw Szukalski. A denomination that was never put into circulation....
According to a decree of the President of the Republic of April 17, 1924, it was decided to mint gold coins with denominations of 100, 50, 20 and 10 zlotys. To select their images, two competitions were organized. The first, in 1924, which the chronicler of the monthly magazine Fine Arts commented "however numerous our sculptors participated in the development of the designs, the yield of the exhibition was exceedingly meager and weak." Only the second one, from 1925, brought designs that went under mint stamps.
The design chosen for the 100-zloty coin was that of Stanislaw Szukalski, with a bust of Copernicus, which took 3rd place in that competition. It lived to see realization in the form of SAMPLE coins in two versions: a rare 20 mm and a noticeably rarer, large, 35 mm.
Mintage of 100 pieces.
On the edge the inscription: SALUS REIPBLICAE SUPREMA LEX.
Article on the Copernicus proofs available at PortalNumizmatyczny.pl
