650th Anniv. of Death of King Charles Robert, 1992

Description

Charles Robert (1288–1342) was born of the House of Anjou in Naples and was crowned King Charles I of Hungary in 1301, when the House of Árpád died out. His name is associated with numerous monetary reforms, of which perhaps the most important was the introduction of gold coinage. First mention of Hungarian gold forints occurs in 1326 and thus researchers theorise that the first coins were minted in 1325. The coin is patterned on the golden lily coin of Florence, the fiorino d’oro, which is also the origin of the name ‘forint’.