A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 12. 1985 (Debrecen, 1985)

Tanulmányok - Kahler Frigyes: Horog Dávid papírpénzhamisító és társai bűnperei a XIX. század első feléből

IV. A vizsgált peranyag — összevetve más, fémpénzhamisítás tárgyában hozott ítélettel39 — valamint az ugyancsak hűtlenséget megvalósító pecséthamisítás és hamis okmány készítés miatt kiszabott büntetéssel40 amellett bizonyít, hogy az infidelitas szóban forgó esetében a halálbüntetést a Hétszemélyes Tábla csak, mint végső lehetőséget — kivételesen — alkalmazta.

V. Nem érdektelen az a megfigyelés sem, hogy Horog Dávid bűntársai nemcsak a subcultura köréből kerülnek ki. Egymás mellett sorakoznak a városi polgárjogot bíró, ha nem is gazdag, de biztos megélhetési forrással rendelkező iparosok, akikben a gyors meggazdagodás vágya — s nem utolsó sorban a felderítés kortársak előtt is ismert nehézségei — leküzdötték a nem csekély joghátrányoktól való félelmet.

The trials of the counterfeiter Dávid Horog and his companions from the first half of the 19th century Frigyes Kahler

At the beginning of the 19th century the Hungarian society was upset by large-scale banknoteforging. It was a peculiar phenomenon that Austrian banknotes had economic importance primarily in the western part of the Habsburgs’ monarchy along the River Danube in the last quarter of the 18th century. In the economic life of Hungary these currendies were foreign—the Hungarian Parliament never admitted them as Hungarian money. The Hungarian people’s opinion of the banknote is reflected in the satirical verse with the title “conversation of—the two forint thaller, the Old X r and the curved ‘Mary’ (silver coin,” written sarcastically by József Bányai, a former theologist in Debrecen between 1805-1808, mentioning this significant counterfeiting in particular. No doubt that counterfeiters could compete easily with the workshops producing the banknotes at that time, and there was not too much risk in issuing even the poorer copies. Illiteracy among the people also contributed to the circulation of hand-drawn and painted forgeries.

Unfortunately only fragments of the documents containing the cases of an infamous countefeiter Dávid Horog, can be found in the materials of criminal trials stored in the Archives of Hajdu-Bihar- county.

Dávid Horog was found guilty of counterfeit three times. He established the first counterfeit workshop in 1812 and organized a gang of criminals to circulate false notes. He false 5 and 2 forint banknotes. For his deeds he was sentenced to “spend many years in prison”. After getting out he printed, together with his former companions in prison, a large quantity of counterfeited banknotes in 50 forint notes in Alsódabas. However, he was forced to escape from that place and settled down again in Debrecen. In his new workshop 10 forint notes were produced. He also drew his landlord and his son, who was under age, into his activities. The gang was arrested and Dávid Horog was sentenced to death. His cooperating confederates were committed to 6 to 15 years of prison in September 1822. The death-sentence was not carried out for unknown reasons, and 11 years later Dávid Horog printed and issued forged 10 forints notes again in Püspökladány and in Debrecen. The judgement from the third trial of Horog has not come down to us. The last document is an order from November 1833, saying that the confederates of Horog were admitted to bail.

On the basis of the study on the material that remained from this trial and from many other similar documents we can state that much more counterfeit money circulated in Hungary that the amount for which the authorities took steps. Courts of justice made sentences to death, included in the dectetum No. II of 1723, only in exceptional cases, while the sentences applied were usually qualified confinements. It is also of interest that persons with civil rights are frequent members of criminal gangs.

39 HBmL. IV. A. 1018/e/39—293. sz. 1835. július 18. Török Péter „hamis pénz koholásért és terjesztésért” 2 évi 11 heti szabadságvesztést kapott.

40 HBmL. IV. A. 1018/e/48—217. sz. 1844. október 12. Újvárosi István „Nánásra való... hamis pecsét és bizonyságlevél készítő” „obsitos katona” egy évi vasban töltendő fogság — a szóló „sen- tentiát” kapott a „szokott böjttel”.

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