Poland złoty country flag

Poland złoty

PLN

Euro country flag

Euro

EUR

Poland złoty
The złoty (alternative spelling: zloty; Polish: polski złoty, Polish: [ˈzwɔtɨ] ; abbreviation: zł; code: PLN) is the official currency and legal tender of Poland. It is subdivided into 100 groszy (gr). It is the most-traded currency in Central and Eastern Europe and ranks 21st most-traded in the foreign exchange market. The word złoty is a masculine form of the Polish adjective 'golden', which closely relates with its name to the guilder, whereas the grosz subunit is based on the groschen, cognate to the English word groat. It was officially introduced to replace its interim predecessor, the Polish marka, on 28 February 1919 and began circulation in 1924. The only bodies permitted to manufacture or mint złoty coins and banknotes are the Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych (PWPW), founded in Warsaw on 25 January 1919, and Mennica Polska, founded in Warsaw on 10 February 1766. As a result of inflation in the early 1990s, the currency underwent redenomination. Thus, on 1 January 1995, 10,000 old złoty (PLZ) became one new złoty (PLN). As a member of the European Union, Poland is obligated to adopt the euro when all specific conditions are met; however, there is no time limit for fulfilling all of them. Currently, Poland is not in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II).
Euro
The euro (symbol: €; currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the 27 member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the euro area or, more commonly, the eurozone. The euro is divided into 100 euro cents. The currency is also used officially by the institutions of the European Union, by four European microstates that are not EU members, the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, as well as unilaterally by Montenegro and Kosovo. Outside Europe, a number of special territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. The euro is used by 350 million people in Europe and additionally, over 200 million people worldwide use currencies pegged to the euro. It is the second-largest reserve currency as well as the second-most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. As of December 2019, with more than €1.3 trillion in circulation, the euro has one of the highest combined values of banknotes and coins in circulation in the world. The name euro was officially adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world financial markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999, replacing the former European Currency Unit (ECU) at a ratio of 1:1 (US$1.1743 at the time). Physical euro coins and banknotes entered into circulation on 1 January 2002, making it the day-to-day operating currency of its original members, and by March 2002 it had completely replaced the former currencies. Between December 1999 and December 2002, the euro traded below the US dollar, but has since traded near parity with or above the US dollar, peaking at US$1.60 on 18 July 2008 and since then returning near to its original issue rate. On 13 July 2022, the two currencies hit parity for the first time in nearly two decades due in part to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Then, in September 2022, the US dollar again had a face value higher than the euro, at around US$0.95 per euro.