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50th Anniversary of Hungary’s First National Park
Established in 1973, the Hortobágy National Park is the first and most extensive national park in Hungary. Initially the area of the Hortobágy National Park spanned across 52,000 hectares, but as a result of continuous expansion and integration, it has grown to approximately 82,000 hectares. Our first national park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. For more than two thousand years, it has provided visible evidence of traditional pastoral land use and exemplified the harmonious relationship between man and nature. The grasslands, as a cultural landscape shaped by shepherd societies, are unique in their pattern and combination of distinctive landscape features, such as the endless horizon broken by distant shadoofs and the silhouettes of wild and backyard animals.
The MNB will issue a silver collector coin named Hortobágyi Nemzeti Park with a face value of 15,000 forint and its non-ferrous metal version of 3,000 forint to honor the national park and the 50th anniversary of its establishment. The primary role of collector coins is to educate and present our national values, therefore they are not to be used in everyday payments. Their face value serves to preserve the value the coins represent to collectors. The silver and the non-ferrous metal versions have the same design, the only difference being their denominations. The collector coins were designed by applied artist Gábor Kereszthury.
The coins are part of the series presenting Hungary’s national parks, and therefore their themes and topics closely follow those of the previous pieces of the series, which showcase species of flora or fauna, characteristic of the individual national parks on the obverse and a piece of landscape or a view of a building on the reverse. The collector coins ‘Hortobágyi Nemzeti Park’ show two characteristics of the national park, a common crane, which is also a heraldic animal, and the scenery of the Puszta, with a shadoof in the center.
The obverse features a group of wading cranes, one of the most distinctive species in the area. The design is completed by the inscription ‘DARU’. The compulsory design elements are also placed on the obverse: on the left, the inscription ‘MAGYARORSZÁG’ (Hungary), on the right in two lines the denominations ‘15000’ and ‘3000’ at the top as well as the lettering ‘FORINT’, the mint mark ‘BP.’ along with the minting year ‘2023’.
The reverse shows a view of the Hortobágy Puszta, with the sun in the background and a shaloof in the centre, a unique landscape feature that still serves as a junction between people and nature. Above the central motif, the inscription ‘HORTOBÁGYI NEMZETI PARK’ is seen. The designer's mark of applied artist Gábor Kereszthury is placed in the bottom left corner on the reverse.
3000 HUF BU CuNiZn 5,000 pieces 26.4x39.61 mm 30.8 g |
