Description
The seventh coin of the Gold Florins collection series of Medieval Hungary was a commemorative coin of János Hunyadi’s gold forint. John Hunyadi, one of the most powerful barons of his age, was elected by the Estates of Hungary as regent in June 1446 until King Ladislaus V came of age. At that time, the Diet invested Hunyadi with power almost equal to that of a king, and thus Hunyadi took advantage of his right to mint coinage. He remained in this position until 1452 and after resigning continued to serve as captain general of the kingdom and administrator of the royal revenues. Of his many military feats, perhaps the most famous occurred in the summer of 1456, when he broke the siege of Belgrade by the Turks, forcing his enemies into retreat. He died in a plague epidemic after the siege on 11 August 1456. Under the regency of John Hunyadi, two kinds of gold florins were minted at Nagybánya (present-day: Baia Mare, Romania), in addition to silver coinage. The back of both coins shows King Saint Ladislaus I, with mint marks to both sides of the figure; the difference between the two is found in the coat-of-arms on the front. While one kind has the apostles’ two-barred cross and the raven of the House of Hunyadi on the quartered escutcheon, the other features the Czech lion instead of the two-barred cross. A collector coin that’s great for any collection! A memorable, valuable gift for any fan of history! Also great for investors!
Front: The images on the versions are identical. The precious metal versions differ only the denomination, and the piedfort version also has a legend on the edge. The front of the coin presents an exact copy of the back of the gold forint issued by the Regent John Hunyadi, showing Saint Ladislaus. The compulsory design elements: the inscription ‘MAGYARORSZÁG’ in an upper legend, the value numerals ‘50000’ in a lower legend and the inscription ‘FORINT’ as well as the upper and lower legend separated by the mint mark ‘BP’ on the left and the mint year ‘2022’ on the right also appear on the obverse.
Back: The back of the coin features the figure of Regent John Hunyadi, inspired by an engraving from the Brno edition of the Thuróczi Chronicle from 1488. However, the image does not show Hunyadi’s shield, but rather the escutcheon parted quarterly, taken from the front of the gold forint issued by Hunyadi. The escutcheon has the Hungarian stripes in the first and fourth fields, with a two-barred cross in the second field and the heraldic animal of the Hunyadi family, the raven, in the third field. The back has two semi-circular legends: HUNYADI JÁNOS KORMÁNYZÓ (Regent John Hunyadi) with the years of his regency 1446–1452 at the top, and ARANYFORINTJA (gold forint) at the bottom. The two legends are separated by the designer mark of Fanni Király.
