Jaelus' Hungarian Patterns

Owner Comments:

This Andras Fay commemorative pattern is quite curious. The Soviets left Hungary in 1989 and the name of the country changed from the People's Republic of Hungary (Magyar Népköztársaság) to The Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság), however, this pattern is dated 1990 and the legend on the reverse lists the Soviet name for the country.

One can only assume this pattern was made in the earlier part of 1989 while that was still the name of the country, with the dies dated 1990 in anticipation of the coin being produced the following year. An out of sync country name and date like this is not seen on any other pattern, which would likely make this one of the very last, if not the last pattern produced in the Soviet era.

This coin as is could not be produced without revision, so to change Magyar Népköztársaság to Magyar Köztársaság they removed the "Nép" (people) from the reverse legend and replaced it with... nothing. Just a conspicuous blank space. Then they released the final version of the coin in 1990 just like that. 50 pieces of this early version pattern were struck.