1985 UNESCO 10 Złotych

What sets this 1985 10 Złotych coin apart is that it was struck to mark the 40th anniversary of UNESCO's founding, a multilateral organization Poland helped establish in 1945.

The obverse features the Polish eagle, standard for the era, while the reverse depicts a stylized globe encircled by olive branches, symbolizing peace and international cooperation. It's composed of copper-nickel, with a diameter of 32 millimeters, and was produced at the Warsaw Mint. Mintage figures are murky; official records from that period in Poland are incomplete, so I won't hazard a guess.

Edge lettering reads "RZECZPOSPOLITA POLSKA," grounding it in national identity amidst a global theme. Sometimes people claim these coins foretold world unity, but that's just wishful thinking for a hunk of metal.