Emlékszám Az 1848-49-es forradalom és szabadságharc tiszteletére - Baranya. Történelmi és honismereti folyóirat. 11-12. évfolyam (1998-1999)
Rayman János: A Kossuth bankók Baranyában
„KOSSUTH BANKNOTES" IN BARANYA COUNTY J. Rayman During the Revolution and the Freedom Fight, Lajos Kossuth, Minister of Finances tried to construct an independent monetary system for the country. First bearer bonds were issued to collect money for the army. The private donations gave a remarkable amount of cash and precious metal to the Treasury. Citizens of Pécs gave 5681 forints in donations. Kossuth tried to fill up the empty treasury with newly issued „Kossuth-banknotes", the first independent Hungarian legal tender. The first ones, with one and two forints face value, were reserved with the bonds and donations and were issued by the Commerce Bank. Later releases of Deficiency and Treasury bills were only issued papers without reservation. These bank notes spread quickly under the territories controlled by Hungarian troops. The Minister of Finance gave description of them and information on issue and acceptance in the Official Gazetee and wrote letters to city and county administrations. After January 1949 Pécs was under the Hapsburg imperial rule, and not all notes could reach the city, so it had no effect on the monetary circulation of the town. After the successfull imperial military expansion there was an attack against the „Kossuth-Banknote". New imperial notes were issued on the reserve of Hungarian tax income (these were the „Almásy-banknotes"). Data from Baranya county show that these notes arrived slowly and only in small amounts. The paper aims to explore how the different notes were issued, circulated and destroyed in Baranya county. Since there were less „Kossuth-banknotes" in circulation there were less found and destroyed. The collected Hungarian notes were burned at the Main Square of Pécs, as they were in other cities, but their value was a few hundred forints, while in Miskolc, for example, it was a couple of thousands.
