I've a bundle of these and I just noticed different edge types. All these in the pic are 1989.
They are all supposed to be reeded..but not so. There seems to be more plain edges than reeded. I'd say a clear variation..but then a couple of the coins have very very faint reeding. Most look completely plain.
Are these variations, or are they just badly made? I dunno. What are your opinions?
Scotty,
I think that it is a variation or badly made i.e. the smooth variety, Most Zlotych's that I have, admittedly all previous to your dates, are reeded including the Groszy.
Badly made...cheap metal...faulty machinery? All of these may be a possibility.
i have seen both reeded and smooth edges on 1989 and 1990 dated 20 zlotych coins. However, the diameters of the smooth edged coins is inconsistent and the texture of the edge is rough but not reeded. I am almost certain that the "smooth edge" variety is really post-Mint damage done to the coin. I suspect that people were filing or machining the diameter of the reeded 20-zlotych coins down so that it would match the diameter of a higher-valued coin and thus fraudulently pass as the more valuable coin in a vending machine. None of the 'smooth edged" 20-zlotychs appear to be a deliberate product of the Polish Mint.
EDIT: In fact, both the UK large-size 5 pence and the current Australian 10-cent coins are worth more than this coin, are made of the same alloy, and are just a little smaller in diameter. I think Poles (or someone else) were milling their old 20-Z coins down so that they could pass as 5p or 10c coins.
The result of the discussion is: There are no 20 Zlotych coins with plain edge made by the Polish mint. All plain-edged coins are manipulated to be mistaken as German 1 DEM or whatever...
The item Poland 184.2 at the Schön catalog of world coins will be removed.
Don't forget to read the coin pages. There's sometimes more information than you expect. Look at the comment sector:
Edit: Hahaha, I noticed too late this was a very old thread with a new reply. Maybe at the time of origin this explanation was not yet in the comments sector.
I think the Comments section was only introduced a few years ago -
so several years ago it did not exist then.
Yes, just seen it was introduced in 2015 ... https://en.numista.com/forum/topic37072.html
