Description
With the integration of the county archives and the Hungarian State Archives in 2012, the National Archives of Hungary came into being, with roots reaching back to the Middle Ages, as the place of storage for (official) documents of national significance. Royal archives had existed continuously since the time of the kings of the House of Árpád, from the end of the 12th century, but much was lost in the turbulent times after the battle of Mohács. In the 1600s, the national diet attempted to safely store documents of national significance that proved the rights of the estates, and these efforts intensified after liberation from the Turks. One important milestone on the path towards establishing an independent archive was Act XLV of 1723, which stipulated that official documents and documents of national significance held by individuals be collected and placed in a national archive (Archivum Regni). This is considered to be the year that the State Archives was founded. However, this resolution from the early 18th century was only acted on three decades later, in 1756, at the initiative of Palatine Lajos Batthyány, who established the archives and provided for its staff and the commencement of its work. The tasks of the “State Archives” included receipt, storage and processing of the Diet’s and Palatine’s documents, as well as the documents of private individuals. After the Compromise of 1867, in 1874 the government created the “new” State Archives, whose scope of responsibility and collection extended to the documents of bodies operating at the central, national and regional levels from all three branches of government (legislative, public administration, justice) and was later expanded to include other cultural and business organisations. The institution’s continuous collection of documents made it necessary to erect a new, independent building for its purposes. Construction started in 1913 near the Vienna Gate Square in Buda, but the Archives were only able to occupy the building in 1923 due to the historical and economic situation. The Archives building was severely damaged in the Second World War and the Revolution of 1956, both structurally and in terms of its collection.
Front: The front portrays the national chest, based on a wall painting by Andor Dudits at the National Archives of Hungary, with the legend “ORSZÁGLÁDA” (national chest) below it, referring back to the days before the establishment of the institution, when the nation’s key documents still fit into a chest The compulsory design elements: the inscription ‘MAGYARORSZÁG’, the value numerals ‘3000’, the mint mark ‘BP’ and the mint year ‘2023’ are also on the obverse.
Back: The back of the coin features a depiction of the current facade of the main building of the Hungarian State Archives, predecessor of the National Archives from 1874 to 2012, which has housed the Archives since 1923, including in the background in a different polish, the tower which was part of the building but was damaged so badly in the Second World War that it had to be demolished. The circular legend on the back left reads “MAGYAR NEMZETI LEVÉLTÁR” (National Archives of Hungary),with the date “1923” at the bottom and, below that, the name of the predecessor “ORSZÁGOS LEVÉLTÁR” (State Archives),with the master mark of the coin’s designer Gábor Kereszthury on the right.
