Reverse: In the center, a stylized image of the Nike of Samothrace statue against the background of a bent silhouette of Zbigniew Herbert. Along the rim on the right, "NIKE KTORA SIE WAHA" (NIKE WHO HESITATES).

Obverse: Along the rim, "ZBIGNIEW HERBERT", "1924-1998", and "RZECZPOSPOLITA POLSKA" for Republic of Poland, and the year of issue. On the left, a portrait of Zbigniew Herbert, the face value, and an image of the eagle, the state emblem of the Republic of Poland. Under the Eagle’s left foot, the Mint mark.

Zbigniew Herbert (1924 - 1998) won many Polish and foreign literary awards. He referred to the Antiquity in order to defy the intellectual, aesthetic and moral mediocrity of communism. After he wrote Mr. Cogito (1974), he became the hero of anticommunist resistance. When the Marshall Law was declared in 1981, his poems were recited at illegal literary meetings held secretly at private homes and in churches.