Coins of the Hungarian forint

Hungarian forint coins (Hungarian: forint érmék) are part of the physical form of current Hungarian currency, the Hungarian forint. Modern forint coins (this name is used to distinguish them from pre-20th century forint coinage) have been struck since 1946 and reflect the changes of post-World War II Hungarian history.

After the trauma of the Second World War and the hyperinflation of the pengő the Hungarian government had to face the problems of introducing a new currency. In the case of coins this meant that they had to express stability and raise confidence in the people toward the new money. The first coins minted in 1946 were made of copper alloys in the case of the fillér coins and aluminium in the case of the 1 & 2 forint coins. Although the forint was based on gold standard, only silver coins were minted in the first 2 years: 5 forint coins made of good quality silver were put into circulation. However, the government fear of hoarding these coins convinced the national bank to lower the mass and quality of silver used for the 1947 strike. Finally, no silver 5 forint coins were minted for general circulation after 1947. The 5 & 50 fillér coins were first minted in 1948 and were made of aluminium.

Commemorative coins appeared early, the first being a series of 3 coins in 1948 to commemorate the centennial of the 1848 revolution.

In 1949 the communist party took power in every field of politics and economy. The country's name was changed to Hungarian People's Republic (Magyar Népköztársaság) which replaced the former name on the coins. The Kossuth's coat of arms was replaced with the Rákosi's one (see: coat of arms of Hungary). The 2, 10 and 20 fillér coins were made of aluminium after 1950.

As a consequence of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 the coat of arms was changed again, this version was used from 1957 until 1989.

In 1992, a new series of coins was introduced with denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 Forint [1]. Production of the 2 and 5 fillér ceased in 1992, with all fillér coins withdrawn from circulation by 1999. From 1996, a bimetallic 100 Forint coin was minted to replace the 1992 version, since the latter was considered to be "too big and ugly" by many, and could be easily mistaken with the 20 Forint coin. The 200 Forint coin was made of .500 fine silver. From 1994, mass minting of the 200 Forint coin was stopped, since the price of the metal was getting higher than the face value of the coin. However, small issues for collector purposes were minted until 1998, when both the 1992 type 100 Forint and the 200 Forint coins were withdrawn from circulation.

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