15,000 forint – National Archives of Hungary

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank is issuing a silver collector coin with a face value of 15,000 forints named ‘Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár’ and its non-ferrous metal version of 3,000 forints to mark the 300th anniversary of the establishment of Hungary’s countrywide independent archives. The collector coins also highlight the 100th anniversary of the opening of the archives building. The coins were designed by applied artist Gábor Kereszthury. As a repository of (state) documents of national importance, the history of the National Archives of Hungary, which was established in 2012 with the integration of the Hungarian National Archives and the county archives, dates back to the Middle Ages. The royal archives was destroyed in the turbulent decades following the Battle of Mohács (1526), and in the 17th century the documents of national importance were stored by the palatines along with their own family documents. The independent archives was established by Act XLV of 1723: the Parliament decided that the documents of the country and the documents of national significance held by private individuals should be collected and it should be made mandatory to deposit them in the country's archives (Archivum Regni). The institution started operating in 1756, and was reorganised in 1874 by merging several other official archives. Since then, it has functioned as a public collection. From the very beginning, there had been efforts to construct an independent archives building, and finally, after several attempts, the construction began in 1913, and despite the difficulties caused by World War I and the dire economic conditions thereafter, the archives continued to operate here from 1923. This headquarter was the first in Hungary to be actually and originally built for the purposes of archiving documents. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the adoption of the Act establishing the countrywide archives, the MNB is issuing a silver collector coin and a non-ferrous metal version with denominations of 15,000 forints and 3,000 forints, respectively. On the obverse, a representation of the country chest is featured, based on a mural painting by painter Andor Dudits in the National Archives of the Hungarian National Archives, with the inscription ‘ORSZÁGLÁDA’ (country chest) below, referring to the time before the institution was founded, when the country's main documents had been stored in a chest. On the outer rim on the obverse the following elements are found: at the top, in a legend the lettering ‘MAGYARORSZÁG’ (Hungary), at the bottom, the denominations ‘15000’ and ‘3000’ as well as the inscription ‘FORINT’ with the mint mark ‘BP.’ on the left and the minting year ‘2023’ on the right.