Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2012 (24. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)
2012-12-14 / 48-49. szám
HUNGARIAN COINS Official Representative Office c/o THE COIN & CURRENCY INSTITUTE, Inc. P.O. Box 399, Williston, Vermont 05495 Contact: A. Friedberg Phone (802) 878-0822 Telefax (802) 536-4787 mail@coin-currency.com Commemorative Silver Coins for the Centennial of • • the birth of István Örkény Part of the series "Great Figures of Hungarian Literature" Hungary. 5,000 Forint 2012. Great Figures of Hungarian Literature: 100th anniversary of the birth of István Örkény. Silver Proof $79.50 István Örkény (April 5, 1912, Budapest — June 24, 1979, Budapest) was an award winning author, a pharmacist and the creator of world-class Hungarian prose in the genre of the grotesque. Hardly any other Hungarian writer has received as much critical acclaim for his work, which has been continually published, and is still frequently performed in theatres. The constant quotations from his “one-minute” stories and thoughts show that his literary work is still very much part of modern Hungarian life. In recognition of the 100th anniversary of his birth, as part of the series on Hungarian literature, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (National Bank of Hungary) is issuing a silver commemorative coin. On the front of the coin, the designer Vilmos Király lists Örkény’s works, placing the initials of the writer in the center. There is a portrait of Örkény on the back. It is struck in .925 fine silver, weighs 31.46 grams and is 38.61 mm in diameter with a milled edge. Proof versions (limit: 4,000) are available at $79.50 each and brilliant uncirculated specimens (limit: 2,000) are $77.75. Örkény was bom into a well-off family of pharmacists. After finishing secondary school at the Piarista Gimnázium, he enrolled to study chemistry at the Technical University, later switching over to pharmacological school, from which he graduated in 1934. Together with his friends, he founded and edited the periodical “Keresztmetszet”, which also featured his first novella. In 1937 he met Attila József and later traveled to London and Paris, where he lived doing odd jobs. He returned to Budapest when World War II broke out, enrolling once again at the Technical University and earning a degree in chemistry in 1941. He was sent to the Russian front in a forced-labour unit in 1942, was captured in 1943 and returned to Hungary at Christmas 1946. From then on, he abandoned his career in pharmacology and devoted his life to literature and theatre. He was the theatrical adviser at the Youth Theatre from 1949 and at the People’s Army Theatre from 1951. After his time in theatre, he was an editor for the publishing house Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó in 1954. During the 1956 revolution he was a member of the executive council of the Hungarian Writers’ Association. From 1958 to 1962 he was banned from publishing due to his activities in 1956. To earn a living, he worked at the United Pharmaceutical and Nutriment Factory writing patient information leaflets. His literary career took off in the second half of the 1960s. This was when he wrote his most wellknown works, including the “one-minute” stories which created an entire genre, and his philosophical satires of social life. During this period he also wrote some of his most important stage works such as “The Toth Family” “A Mirror to the Cage” and “Catsplay”. Most of his works were performed on stage and movies were made from many. During this period, a large amount of his work was translated into foreign languages and his plays were performed around the world. He won the Attila József Literature Award in 1955 and 1967, the Black Humour Award in Paris in 1969, and the Kossuth Award in 1973. Launch of the 1st Hungarian satellite, MASAT-1 Hungary. 1,000 Forint 2012. Proof $19.50, B.U. $17.75 The launch of Masat-1, the first Hungarian satellite, is commemorated with a new, square -shaped 1,000 forint coin, as the eighth piece in the series on Hungarian engineers and inventors, and their inventions. Masat-1 (the name comes from MAgyar and SATellite) was the first satellite built completely by Hungarians. A so-called “cube satellite” with a mass of roughly 2 pounds and a length of only about 4 inches (plus antenna), it was developed by the students of the Budapest Technical and Economics University (BME), with the assistance of instructors and researchers. Some of the parts were manufactured by Hungarian companies. The satellite was launched on February 13, 2012, at 11 AM Hungarian time from the Kourou space center in French Guyana. It was carried into space on a Vega rocket of the European Space Agency. Masat-1 serves educational purposes, collecting data on its status and its environment and sends them to a ground station designed by the BME team and housed at the Engineer Training Institute. It follows an elliptical orbit at altitudes of 220-900 miles. It overflies Hungary 8 times a day, and on average the data it transmits can be received for 5 to 20 minutes at a time. It is expected that the satellite will be operational for a few months. In 3-4 years it will slow and burn up upon re-entry. The 1,000 forint coin is legal tender in Hungary and was designed by Áron Bohus, who depicted the ground station antenna on the front and the satellite above Europe on the back. It is copper-nickel, weighs 14 grams and is 28.43 millimeters (1.2 inches) square. Two versions, proof and brilliant uncirculated were minted with an issue limit of 5,000 pieces of each. Albert Szent-Györgyi: Discoverer of Vitamin C Hungary. 3,000 Forint 2012. Silver B.U. $39.50. Hungary’s 1st oval coin. 1st coin in a new series: Hungarian Nobel Prize Winners The fact that a country with a population of only 10 million has produced 13 Nobel Laureates, is worth celebrating and the National Bank of Hungary is taking that step with the launch of a new coin series dedicated to them. The first issue is dedicated to Albert Szent-Gyögyi, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He was awarded the prize in recognition of his discovery of Vitamin-C. This is celebrated on the coin with the depiction of both the inside and outside of a pepper (in Hungarian “pritamin”), the vegetable from which Szent-Györgyi discovered he could extract the most Vitamin-C. The 3,000 forint coin is the creation of Fanni Vékony and is the first in the nation’s history to be oval in shape. It is made of .925 fine (sterling) silver, weighs 12.5 grams, and measures 30 x 25 millimeters. Just 2,000 pieces were authorized in brilliant uncirculated quality. Szent-Györgyi was born in 1893, and studied at the University of Budapest before serving in World War I on the Italian and Russian fronts. After completing his studies in Budapest, he worked and studied in Prague, Berlin, and Hamburg. In 1920 he became an assistant at the University Institute of Pharmacology in Leiden and from 1922 to 1926 Groningen, the Netherlands. In 1927 he went to Cambridge as a Rockefeller Fellow, and spent one year at the Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota, before returning to Cambridge. In 1930 he became the chair of Medical Chemistry at the University of Szeged and in 1935 he also assumed the chair in Organic Chemistry. When the Russians invaded Finland in 1939, he offered all of his Nobel prize money to the Finnish resistance. When the Nazis came to Hungary, he joined the resistance, using his wealth to help Jewish friends flee. Even though Hungary aligned itself with the Nazis, the country’s prime minister wanted to conduct secret negotiations with the Allies so he sent Szent-Györgyi to conduct them. He scheduled a scientific talk in Cairo as a front, but the Nazis discovered the scheme and arrested him. Miraculously, he escaped and spent the rest of the war on the run, hiding from the Gestapo. At the end of World War II, he took the chair of Medical Chemistry at Budapest and in 1947, upset with the rise of communism, he left Hungary to settle in the United States where he became Director of Research, Institute of Muscle Research, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He died there in 1986. To order, or for more information on these and other coins of Hungary, contact the Hungarian Mint’s North American Representative at P.O. Box 399, Williston, VT 05495. Toll-free 1-800-421-1866. Fax 802-536-4787. Email: mail@coin-currency.com, or click on the Hungarian flag at www.coin-currency.com . Add $5.75 to each order for shipping and handling. Vermont residents add 6% sales tax. Those desiring to receive information and photographs electronically on a regular basis can provide their email address to mail@coin-currency.com. December 14,2012
