A team of four horses sketched in pencil — a fragment of a drawing by Piotr Michałowski appears on the reverse of this 2012 commemorative 2 zlote coin from the series Polish Painters of the 19th and 20th Centuries. It was issued on 28 November 2012.

The reverse is by Dobrochna Surajewska: on the left a stylised bust of the painter beneath the inscription «PIOTR MICHAŁOWSKI», on the right a fragment of his pencil sketch «Czwórka koni w zaprzęgu» (Four-Horse Team), and below the years «1800-1855». The obverse with the eagle is by Ewa Tyc-Karpińska.

Michałowski was born near Kraków into a wealthy noble family and received a broad education, from mathematics to law. After the November Uprising he found himself in Paris, where he frequented the studios of battle painters and moved in the circle of Théodore Géricault.

His main subjects were the Napoleonic era — above all the charge at Somosierra, which he painted in several versions — the November Uprising, equestrian portraits and studies of horses. Contemporaries saw him as a gifted amateur, and only in the late 19th century was Michałowski recognised as the greatest painter of Polish Romanticism.

The coin fills its place in the Polish painters series and suits a horses-on-coins theme. UNC grade: no traces of circulation, original mint lustre.

A coin from the VPcoins catalogue is a gift that is interesting to examine and has a story worth telling.