Poland 2-ZLOTE (Y80.1)

Poland's coat of arms features the spread-winged eagle. The white eagle first appeared on Polish coins in the tenth century, and the spread-winged version has almost always worn a crown.

During the Post-War Republic period (1945-1989), the eagle appears without a crown on both the coat of arms and the coins. The crown returns in 1990, at the start of the "Democratic Republic" period.

There are many coins with the eagle, and this is the first one to land in the Coin Zoo. I picked it up while browsing at a coin show because it looked nice, and was only a dollar or two. As time goes by, I will probably add a few more examples.