 Image: wieliczka-saltmine.com
The first of only two gold coins for 2024 was issued by the Hungarian Mint on July 24. It is dedicated to St. Kinga of Hungary as one of the coins in the Saints of the Arpad Dynasty coin series. The 100,000 forint conforms to the historic standard for a double gold ducat or florin, with 6.982 grams of .986 fine gold. Diameter is 22 mm. 2,000 pieces are being minted in proof quality.
The coin marks the 800th anniversary of the birth of Saint Kinga, the patroness of salt miners. She was the first child of Hungarian King Béla IV (1235–1270) and Byzantine princess Maria Laskarina. Her siblings included Saint Margaret of Hungary and Blessed Yolanda. She was the wife of Bolesław V, High Duke of Poland. She is the patron saint of Poland and Lithuania.
She was deeply religious from an early age, leading her to take a vow of chastity, which she even upheld during her marriage. In 1241, she supported the struggle against the Mongol invasion with her whole dowry. After the invasion, together with her husband she opened a salt mine in Wieliczka near Kraków (Poland), with miners brought in from Hungary. This is also the root of the most famous legend associated with Saint Kinga: the story of her engagement ring which was dropped into a salt mine in the Máramaros region and was later miraculously found by miners in the Wieliczka salt mine. Using the income from the salt mine, she built monasteries, churches and hospitals, including the monastery at Ószandec (present-day Stary Sącz, Poland), where she resided after her husband’s death and remained in contemplative prayer until her own death at the age of 35.
The obverse of the coin shows Saint Kinga, based on a sculpture by Dávid Tóth, with a lily in her left hand. To her left is a ring with a set of vertical lines extending upwards to the edge of the coin and the stylized image of the entryway to a salt mine below. To the left is the vertical legend “ÁRPÁD-HÁZI SZENT KINGA” (Saint Kinga of the House of Árpád). The years of her birth and death are in two lines below, “1224” and “1292”.
The reverse has a view of the monastery in Ószandec encircled in an engagement ring, with the legend “ÓSZANDEC” below, surrounded by the pattern of salt crystals. The legend “WIELICZKA” is integrated into the salt crystal below and at the bottom is the designer mark of E. Tamás Soltra, who focuses on the legend of the engagement ring as the central theme of the composition.
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