bavarikon4UPaper money in Hungary
Like other European countries, Hungary has a chequered history of paper money issues. The Kingdom of Hungary, incorporated into the Habsburg hereditary monarchy since 1687, experienced the beginning of a profound change during the European revolutionary year of 1848. The first Hungarian paper money issues by the Hungarian Commercial Bank also took place in this year.
The revolutionary movement’s exile notes are almost exclusively known for the "Bach era" (after the politician Alexander von Bach [1813-1893]) following the War of Independence, some of which were issued by the opposition party under Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894) even before the revolution began. These issues presumably served as a kind of donation note to finance the party. When Kossuth was in exile, he issued notes for Hungary in various states, again as a kind of donation note to finance the revolutionary movement. One example of this are banknotes issued in the USA by the "Hungarian Fund".
During the so-called "Ausgleich" (Compromise) in 1867, the now autonomous states of Austria and Hungary were given a joint Ministry of Finance, Foreign Affairs and War. The common currency was kept and the Austrian National Bank was transformed into the Austro-Hungarian Bank in 1878 with branches in Vienna and Budapest. From 1880 the bank issued its first series with one side in German and one side in Hungarian.
The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy in 1918 also led to the end of the Austro-Hungarian Bank. After the proclamation of the Republic of Hungary in November 1918, some branches still put banknotes into circulation. The Hungarian Soviet Republic government took over the branches of the Austro-Hungarian Bank in March 1919 and reprinted the previous notes. After the fall of the Soviet Republic government in the summer of 1919, these notes were withdrawn again.
In 1920, the Ministry of Finance ordered that banknotes still in circulation be imprinted with "MAGYARORSZÁG" (Hungary), and the Ministry issued paper money until 1925. Since 1926, Hungarian paper money has been issued by the Hungarian National Bank, which was founded in 1924. Initially, government notes remained in circulation and were printed over. Finally, in 1926, the Hungarian National Bank put its first series of banknotes into circulation.
After the end of the war, inflation set in in Hungary. Finally, a currency reform was carried out in August 1946 and the forint was introduced as the new currency.
Note: The issues of the Austro-Hungarian Bank are not shown separately in this sub-collection, but can be seen in the Austria sub-collection.
>> This collection is part of the holdings of "Paper money in Europe" of the Giesecke+Devrient Stiftung Geldscheinsammlung (Giesecke+Devrient foundation: collections of bank notes).