100 — One Hundred Forints
The artwork
Front: Lajos Kossuth in three-quarter view, bearded and in a braided Hungarian coat, framed in an engraved oval to the right; his name reads KOSSUTH LAJOS beneath. Left, a large 100 over a FORINT scroll in a matching rosette. Centre, the wreathed shield of the People's Republic, the dateline BUDAPEST, 1989. ÉVI JANUÁR HÓ 10-ÉN and MAGYAR NEMZETI BANK above three signatures, with SZÁZ FORINT banded across the top.
Back: A team of horses bolting across the open puszta, hauling a light cart, the driver's whip cracked overhead and a second figure clinging on behind — after a painting by Károly Lotz, credited LOTZ K. PINX. at the lower left with the engraver NAGY Z. SC. opposite. The scene sits in a deep oval of guilloche; SZÁZ FORINT in ornamental panels flanks it, with 100 in each of the four ribboned corners.
In circulation
The Kossuth 100 forint was a fixture of Hungarian pockets for decades, reissued with fresh datelines through the 1980s and into the early 1990s. This 1989 printing belongs to the final years of it: the denomination passed to a coin, and the post-communist series of the later 1990s replaced the old notes altogether.
Details
- CurrencyForint
- DenominationOne Hundred Forints
- Collectedon the Hungary journey, 1991
- IssuerMagyar Nemzeti Bank
- SeriesDated Budapest, 10 January 1989
- SignatureThree manuscript signatures below the centre
- SecurityPrinted warning A BANKJEGYHAMISÍTÁST A TÖRVÉNY BÜNTETI; serial in red, prefix B 127