Description
Béni Egressy (1814-1851) is a Hungarian composer, writer and actor. The obverse of the coin bears some notes of the melody written to Mihály Vörösmarty’s poem Szózat, which propelled Egressy to national fame. The reverse of the coin bears the composer’s bust and signature. A man of many talents, Egressy translated plays and librettos, composed landmark Hungarian art songs and was himself the librettist of three of Ferenc Erkel’s most significant operas featuring historical characters Mária Bátori, László Hunyadi and Bánk bán. Known as the father of Hungarian national opera, Erkel praised Egressy to writer Géza Gárdonyi at a virtuoso pianist’s concert in his late years: “This is exactly how Egressy used to play, all trills and thrills. One must wonder where he found so many melodies.”
Front: The obverse of the coin bears the notes for the first line of the poem Szózat (“Hazádnak rendületlenül”) in the mid-section with the value numeral “10,000” and, adjusted slightly to the left, the inscription “FORINT” above. The lower section of the obverse displays the country name “MAGYARORSZÁG”, the mint year “2014” and the mint mark “BP.”.
Back:The reverse of the coin is dominated by the bust of Béni Egressy with the inscription “BÉNI EGRESSY” to the left and the dates of his birth and death “1814–1851” to the right, both arranged in semi-circles. The designer mark of László Szlávics Jr. is above the left shoulder of the bust and above the right shoulder is the symbol “Euro-Star”, the common emblem of the international commemorative coin series “EUROPA”, whose 2014 theme is “European composers”.
Keywords:music, composer, art, silver, 2014
