Dropping the Dime on Polish Money

For American and possibly British readers, the phrase ‘dropping a dime’ is readily understood but, for readers in other parts of the world... well, I can see them scratching their head.

As our audience is truly international, thank you for your readership!, for those who have no idea, let’s take a moment to explain what dropping a dime means.

About 50 years ago, in America, the price of a phone call from a pay phone was 10 cents. One could certainly use two nickels (the 5 cent coin) but, overwhelmingly, people preferred to use their dimes – the name of the 10 cent coin.

In itself, the phrase is innocuous until you think of its shady past: dropping a dime on someone meant calling the authorities to inform them of some nefarious deed, either about to happen or having already happened.

You could say ‘It’s going down now!’ to mean the deed is in progress.

So, dropping a dime means giving information. In our case, the information being given is not of the wicked or despicable variety.

The dime we’re dropping today alludes neither to ill-gotten gains or telling on anyone. We just want to share some thoughts about Polish money.   

The Polish currency is called złoty, pronounced dz-woe-te; a word whose literal translation is ‘golden’.

For those of you who did not get enough of Polish grammar in our last post: złoty is a grammatically masculine adjective. Feminine would be złota and neutral would be złote.   

It is broken down into multiple denominations: six bills – 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500. And then, there are coins... LOTS of coins! We’ll talk about them in a mo.

Poland’s paper currency is pretty straightforward. Like most every other country’s paper currency, the dimensions of this money get increasingly bigger the larger the denomination, with the 500 PLN bill being fully 3cm longer than the 10PLN.

Interesting fact about money: Canadian and US dollars are the only major currencies in the world whose paper denominations are all the same size.

That makes it very difficult for blind consumers in those countries to count their money. However, in Canada, there are raised markers in the top right corners of the bills that the blind can ‘read’. Also, their money being differently-colored makes it easier for the visually impaired to distinguish one bill from the other.

American currency does not yet offer these advantages to the visually disabled but the American Council of the Blind are lobbying hard for those changes.

Besides being of different sizes and colors, all of Poland’s paper money is adorned with likenesses of past sovereigns on the front side. On the reverse of each note is a depiction of some artefact dating from that ruler’s reign.

For example: the 10 złoty note shows a coin used during King Mieszko’s time on the throne. He is the ruler drawn on the front side of the bill. 

The larger the denomination, the more that is revealed about that monarch’s rule.

The 100PLN note includes the coat of arms of the ruler depicted on the front of the bill. Also depicted is the Teutonic Knight’s coat of arms and, toward the left, Malbork castle (the largest castle in the world!)

Using paper currency in Poland is easy: hand over a 100 and get change. If you’ve spent less than 50, hand over one of those and get change. And so on...

I used to do the same in China, when I first got there.

Not understanding any Mandarin and feeling it imperative to transact my business and get out of the way as quickly as possible, I soon found myself with a bunch of smaller money that I would somehow have to spend.

It has the same paper denominations as Polish money, save for the two largest bills. And, like so many other world currencies, Chinese money is multi-colored and grows in size, the larger the denomination.

Fortunately, the RMB, as the Chinese currency is known, only has 3 coin denominations: .10, .50 and 1 Yuan.

By contrast, the Złoty has... SO many coins!

1, 2 and 5 złoty coins are very useful. But then, we get down into the smaller... MUCH smaller fractions. Before disclosing them, a new word: groszen, that represents those fractions of the złoty.

                                                                                                 

Are you ready for this? Here, besides the 1, 2, and 5 złoty coins, consumers juggle:

1 grosz = 1/100th of a  złoty

2 grosze = 1/50th of a  złoty

5 grosze = 1/20 of a  złoty

10 groszy = 1/10th of a  złoty

20 groszy = 1/5th of a  złoty

50 groszy = 1/2  złoty

So, if you are especially quick, have a change purse full of coins and need to pay – oh, let’s say 12.97 for something, you could, in very short order, whip out all of the change you need to pay exactly that amount.  

In various combinations, at that!

The back of each coin bears the Polish coat of arms, ‘Republic of Poland’ and, of course, the year they were minted.

The front indicates each coin’s denomination – for the 2 and 5 złoty coins, that’s all the decoration to be had. For the others, there is generally some sort of leaf decoration, sometimes arranged in a circle around the denomination number.

As in China, so in Poland: when I first got here, I had no idea how to count in this language, let alone any understanding of what a cashier might say I owe. My modus operandi: a quick glance at the register’s readout, hand over a bill large enough to cover that amount and pocket my change.

My system worked well insofar as getting me out of the way as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, it left me with an unmanageable pile of coins that I had no idea how to use unless I were to take up the cashier’s valuable time and make everyone behind me wait unnecessarily while I counted out the ones and twos.

Soon, I was lugging a weighty purse around. I need a different way to manage all of these coins!

Aside

Unlike in China, where I was getting paid in RMB, here, the złoty is not my base currency; the Euro is.

Although I do not earn enough to live comfortably in the richer (more expensive) European countries, I earn plenty well to live comfortably in Poland... especially the more favorable an exchange rate I get!

As such, I am less concerned about having piles of change laying around; if I want to buy anything I can either use larger denominations that I am familiar with or use either one of my bank cards.

A conversation with Luisa a while back gave me reason to change my perspective.

I am indeed quite fortunate to earn so well for where I live. There are people who need to scrape together every last little tiny coin they can find in order to get by. For them, the 10 grosz and the 2 grosz have real value... I need to realize that value as well, if I am to understand life in Poland.

And, while I still think that healthcare is ridiculously cheap here, even at private clinics, I reflect on those who have no choice but to seek care from their ‘national insurance’ doctor because they don’t have a grosz to spare for anything else.  

Back from the Aside

Resolution made: I will make use of these coins. I bought a new change purse; the one I had simply couldn’t handle the load!

Yes, I whipped out a large bill to pay for it, I confess, shame-faced!

The one-, two- and five- złoty coins still spend relatively easy but now I also carry a contingent of smaller coins. Although too painstaking to add everything up on my weekly shopping jaunt, if I am only buying few things, I do the math.

Whereas I prefer the self-checkouts for their expediency, I now go through the cashier lines so that I can pay with cash rather than a card. (that also gives me the chance to use what little Polish I know: win-win!)

So... how long do you think it will take for me to get rid of this pile of change???