15,000 forint – 250th Anniversary of the Birth of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz

On 17 November 2023, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) is issuing a silver collector coin with a face value of 15,000 forints and its non-ferrous version of 3,000 forints, named ‘Mihály Csokonai Vitéz’, to mark the 250th birth anniversary of one of the most significant poets of the Hungarian Enlightenment. In designing these collector coins the Petőfi Literary Museum's thematic expertise was applied by sculptor Borbála Szanyi. Often called a scholar poet (poeta doctus), Mihály Csokonai Vitéz (17 November 1773 - 28 January 1805) was a highly educated, outstanding writer, poet and translator of the Hungarian Enlightenment. In terms of content and form, he was the innovator of the language of Hungarian poetry. He could read and speak in several languages, which transformed him into an experimental author who tried his hand at all genres of poetry: from song to ode, from incidental poems to rococo love poetry, from drama to mock-heroic works and philosophical poems, he wrote in a wide range of genres. His extraordinary talent soon became evident at the Debrecen Reformed College during his academic years, but he never received real recognition from his peers, and this had an effect on his short life. He had no livelihood security, no literary success, his writings were never printed and sold, and he enjoyed no happiness in his private life. His writings and poems, which brought him popularity in his lifetime, were distributed in manuscript form. After his death, his poems were collected and published by József Márton in 1813, and all of his works were put into print and released by Ferenc Toldy (Schedel) in 1844.