Red złoty

Red złoty (Polish: czerwony złoty; also known as Polish ducats or florins) refers to circulating gold coins minted in the Kingdom of Poland (later, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) from 1526 to 1831. Whereas złoty "(adj.) gold(en)" could simply refer to the colour, czerwony (red) specified the material as gold.

The earliest minting of Polish gold coins dates from the 14th century (1320s and 1330s) and the reign of Władysław I the Elbow-high. Władysław after becoming king initiated a reform of the monetary system based on similar policies that had been carried out in Hungary, where he had previously spent some years in exile. The coins issued by Władysław's mints were patterned after the ducats first produced by Charles I of Hungary. These were the first red złotys. Only one example has survived. No more gold coins were produced in Poland until the late 15th century and the reign of Alexander Jagiellon.

The red złoty was different from the Polish złoty proper, which was the money of account adopted during Alexander's reign in 1496. To combat the confusion and inflation resulting from the different coinage used in the Kingdom of Poland, Sigismund I the Old around 1526-1528 introduced further monetary reform, which included increased minting of the red złoty in Kraków. From 1528 the new monetary system was used in the Polish province of Royal Prussia, and in 1569 (following the Union of Lublin and the formation of the Commonwealth), in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

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