Jaelus' Hungarian Patterns

Owner Comments:

Inflation of the Hungarian forint led to the discontinuation of the 1 and 2 forint denominations and the introduction of a new 200 forint coin (worth about a dollar) in 2009. This necessitated trials of the planchets for this new coin for the vending industry ahead of its release. These vending machine trials were struck to facilitate planchet testing under the condition that they be returned to the mint when the tests concluded.

Five versions of these vending machine trials were ultimately produced, a small size monometallic, large size monometallic, small size bimetallic, and large size bimetallic, all based on a 200 forint variation on the design used for the 100 forint coin. These coins were undated, bearing "MINTA" (specimen) in place of the date.

A final fifth design very close to the size and composition of the final business strike was produced with a flower design on the obverse. The flower design was one of the submitted designs for the new coin that was being considered, that was ultimately not selected for the business strike. This type was dated 2009 with "MINTA" above the date.