Zloty

Zloty (Polish: złoty ‘golden’). A Polish monetary unit, the name of which is derived from the calque for various gold ducats, florins, and guldens that circulated in the 14th- and 15th-century Polish Commonwealth, including Ukraine. From 1493 it was worth 30 silver groszy (cf German Groschen) and had a weight value of 30 g. From 1661, zlotys were minted on a large scale in Lviv, Cracow, and Bydgoszcz as silver coins equaling one-third of a taler. In the 18th century 1 pre-Partition zloty (złotówka) was worth 30 copper groszy or 4 silver groszy. From 1786, zlotys (worth 15 Austrian kreuzers) did not circulate in Austrian-ruled Galicia. In the Congress Kingdom of Poland they were worth one-sixth of a taler. In Russian-ruled Poland 1 zloty was worth 15 kopecks from 1832. Since 1924, 1 zloty has equaled 100 groszy. The zloty was reintroduced in 1924 as the chief monetary unit of Poland. In the interwar years approx 5 zloty equaled 1 US dollar.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]