Hungarian Coins

A-Z Countries Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Obverse of 1893 Hungarian 10 Filler

Countries Reverse of 1893 Hungarian 10 Filler

Ancient History
The territory in modern Hungary west of the Danube was part of the Roman province of Pannonia from the time of Augustus up until the 4th Century AD. As the Western Empire declined, Hungarian invaders from the east pushed into Hungary, led by Attila the Hun.
It was for a long time believed that the word 'Hungary' was derived from the Huns who migrated into Hungary, but this is now believed to be erroneous, and that the name is derived a tribal alliance between Magyar tribes (the predecessors of modern-day Hungarians) and Bulgars. This tribal alliance, formed in the 7th Century, was known as On-Ogour, meaning 'Ten Arrows' in Bulgar-Turkic.
Over the years, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Slavs, Gepids and Avars, as well as Magyars passed through or settled in Hungary.

Kingdom of Hungary
The various Magyar tribes were first united under Arpad, Grand Prince of the Hungarians (or Magyars) in 895 AD, and under Arpad, the Magyars settled in the Carpathian Basin. However, the Grand Princes of the Hungarians essentially headed a confederation of Magyar tribes, and it was not until 1000 AD that the Kingdom of Hungary was founded under its first King, Stephen, who had converted to Christianity and been recognised as King by both the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.
During the 13th Century, Hungary was invaded and almost destroyed by the Mongol horde led by Batu Khan, and was only saved by the death of the Great Khan Ogedei in 1241, prompting the withdrawal of Batu's forces so that he could take place in the election of a replacement Great Khan.

Personal Union with the Habsburgs
In 1526, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor was elected King of Hungary by a rump Hungarian diet (Parliament) this was contested however with Janos Szapolyai (John I) and his supporters however, and eventually, in 1538 it was decided to divide Hungary between the two rulers.
Both Austria and Hungary had to struggle for much of the 16th and 17th Century against the Ottomans, who were attempting to expand their holdings beyond the Balkans. However, following the breaking of the Siege of Vienna in 1683, Ottoman power began to decline, and that of the Holy Roman Emperors, whilst stagnating in Germany, began to increase in Hungary at the expense of the Ottomans, and in 1699, the Ottoman Empire ceded areas under its control to the Habsburgs. Early in the 18th Century, Charles IV Holy Roman Emperor was established as King Charles III of Hungary, theoretically separate to the Holy Roman Empire, but in practice, ruled over as an autocracy by whoever happened to be the Holy Roman Emperor.
Hungary was ruled over by the Holy Roman and later Austrian Habsburg Emperors as absolute monarchs until 1867, when following Austria's defeat in the Austro-Prussian war, Hungarian nobles successfully lobbied for an entirely separate kingdom and diet, but one which shared a common foreign policy, thus forming the Austro-Hungarian Empire under Emperor Franz Josef.

Independence
In 1918, Austria-Hungary lost the First World War and the Habsburg Monarchy was deposed. The end of the personal union under the Habsburgs caused the breakup of the Empire into its constituent nations and Hungary emerged as an independent nation. In 1919, the Communists seized power in Hungary under Bela Kun, however this was short lived and Kun was soon overthrown when the Romanians invaded and occupied Budapest, handing power over the Social Democratic Party.
In 1920, the Treaty of Trianon (the Hungarian equivalent of the Treaty of Versailles) reduced Hungarian territory to less than half of its original size and population. In theory, it remained a Kingdom from 1920 until 1944 under regent Miklos Horthy, a former Admiral of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The Habsburgs were prevented by the allies from resuming the Hungarian throne however.
The anger over the Treaty of Trianon led to many in Hungary sympathising with Nazi Germany, and Horthy enthusiastically took up Hitler's offer for Hungary to annex a quarter of Slovakia in 1938 when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia.
He was nevertheless deeply distrustful of the Nazis, and tried to stem their influence as much as possible. However, geo-political realities forced Hungary into the Nazi orbit and in 1941; it joined the Axis by declaring war on the Soviet Union. Horthy's support for the Axis war effort was lacklustre however, and in 1944, he attempted to capitulate to the allies, resulting in a Nazi-sponsored coup that deposed him in favour of the Arrow Cross Party (the Hungarian equivalent of the Nazi Party).
The Arrow Cross Party did not survive in power for long however, as the Soviets invaded and took control of Hungary in 1945, installing a puppet Communist government in its place.

Soviet Occupation
Initially, the Soviets allowed free elections in Hungary, but once it became clear that the Communists were not going to win a majority, the Soviets began to engineer a coup to allow the Communists to seize control. By 1949, the Communist Party had forcibly merged with other leftist parties, and had declared opposition parties illegal.
The death of Stalin in 1953 allowed the moderate Marxist Imre Nage to come to power, replacing the unpopular Stalinist Matyas Rakosi. Nage tried to reform Hungary's Marxist government to make it less tyrannical, and tried to withdraw Hungary from the Warsaw Pact. However, the Soviets responded by sending troops into Hungary to depose him. The resulting Hungarian uprising was brutally crushed and Nage, who had taken refuge in the Yugoslav enemy, was coaxed out with false promises of safe conduct. He was subsequently arrested and deported to Romania, he was then returned to Hungary and after a mockery of a trial, convicted of treason, sentenced to death and hanged in 1958.
Nage's successor, Janos Kadar would rule Hungary until he was deposed after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He died soon after.

Hungary Today
Hungary returned to democracy in 1990 after a free and fair election. However, in 2010, Viktor Orban's Fidez Party won a supermajority within parliament that has effectively overruled the checks and balances of Hungary's constitution. His opponents have charged that Hungary is now little more than a right-wing dictatorship governed by Orban and his political allies.

Coinage of Hungary
The use of coins in Hungary dates back to the time of Ancient Rome or earlier. The name of the denomination used in Hungary today, the forint, was first used in 1325, and shares the same etymological origins as the word ‘florin’, a gold coin once struck in Florence, Italy.
Under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the forint (subdivided into 100 krajczar) existed as an equivalent to the Austrian Gulden. When Austria-Hungary adopted the gold standard in 1892, both the forint and the Austrian gulden were replaced with the krone (known as the korona in Hungarian), with two forint to the korona. The korona was subdivided into 100 filler.
The devastating effect of defeat in the First World War saw the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Hungary subsequently re-merged as an independent country. It also led to hyperinflation, and the korona collapsed in value. In 1927, the pengo replaced the forint at the rate of 12,500 korona to the pengo. The poor economic circumstances of the inter-war period, including the great depression, hit Hungary hard, and currency devaluations were common as Hungary struggled to keep its exports competitive with the rest of the world.
World War II also had a serious effect on the pengo, but the worst was yet to come as in 1946, whilst Hungary was under Soviet Occupation, Hungary suffered hyperinflation worse than that of any other country at any other time in history. At one point, prices were more than doubling every 16 hours, and the monthly inflation rate was a jaw-dropping 13,600,000,000,000,000%. By the time the situation was seriously addressed, and the pengo replaced by a new forint, all the banknotes of the pengo in circulation (coins, being worth much more in scrap metal value, had long since disappeared from circulation) amounted to less than a thousandth of a US dollar. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Hungarian forint suffered another bout of high inflation, but nowhere near as bad as the immediate post-war period. The last filler coin, the 50 filler piece, was withdrawn from circulation in 2000, and the filler subdivision now exists only in theory. The lowest denomination of coin in circulation today is the 1 forint, but this, along with the 2 forint piece, will be withdrawn from circulation in 2013, leaving the 5 forint piece as the lowest denomination coin. The largest denominated coin, the 200 forint, was introduced in 2009.
Hungary is currently committed to join the Euro, but it remains to be seen that this will happen, given the Eurozone crisis that is taking place at the time of writing.

For Sale and Wanted
If you are interested in coins from Hungary please see our product index:-
Hungarian Coins

Hungarian Gold Coins