Medieval Gold Forints
On the 16th of April, the numismatic lecture series in Nagybajom continued, guiding those interested into the world of numismatics as part of the city’s jubilee year. Following the Celtic coinage, this time the focus shifted to one of the most brilliant eras of medieval Hungarian minting: the gold Forint.
The Municipality of Nagybajom is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its incorporation as a city in 2026. The Csányi Foundation’s local Community House and the municipality have made this illustrious event even more memorable with a three-part lecture series. The aim of the series is to present the milestones of our national currency and economic history along the lines of current round anniversaries in Hungarian numismatics—such as the centenary of the founding of the National Bank of Hungary or the 80th anniversary of the introduction of the forint.
The Assembly Hall of the Municipality once again hosted the second occasion of the series. After the adventures into the Celtic era in the first lecture, the audience could travel back to the Hungarian Middle Ages. Máté Varga, a mentor from the Foundation’s Kaposvár branch, gave a presentation titled “Medieval Gold Florins,” focusing on the patterns, sizes, and characteristics of various medieval gold coins, and most importantly: the attempts at counterfeiting them by the resourceful blacksmiths of the age.
Today, Máté Varga deals with numismatics only as a hobby; however, he is a member of several archaeological and numismatic societies and previously worked at the Rippl-Rónai Museum in Kaposvár, among others. In cooperation with the museum, he has published several works on various coin finds. He has been a volunteer and developmental teacher for the Foundation since 2011 and recently became a mentor.
The final installment of this educational series, titled “The Rákóczi War of Independence in the Mirror of Numismatics” presented by Ernő Szabó, will take place on Thursday, May 7, starting at 5:00 PM in the Assembly Hall of the Nagybajom Town Hall.