Hungarian coinage during Austro-Hungarian times

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Hungary, 10 filler, 1916.

This is not a subject that I am familiar with. If you are knowledgeable, please correct me and/or fill in the gaps. When Austria-Hungary gave Hungary more autonomy as the Kingdom of Hungary, it (Hungary) also acquired its own coins. Below is the Hungarian 10 filler of 1916. It corresponded to 10 heller (Austria) and shows the crown of St. Stephen, who is regarded as the founder of the Kingdom of Hungary.

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Austria, 20 filler, 1914.

Compare the general design of the filler with the heller coins.

They are very different.

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Hungary, 5 korona, 1906.

While the main unit of currency was called the Krone in Austria, the equivalent in Hungary was the korona. Below you see a 5 koronoa coin of Hungary, dated 1906. The Hungarian arms include two angels. Are these angels to be considered male? And why are there two of them - is that of any significance?

And what was the highest denomination actually used in circulation? I presume it was the 1 korona and not this coin?

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Hungarian coat of arms.

In the large Hungarian coat of arms, sometimes the angels are standing, sometimes they are flying. Here is a description from the internet:

The "large coat of arms" of Hungary was first used by Habsburg king Leopold II, reigning in Hungary between 1790-1792. In the top row, the coats of arms of Croatia, Dalmatia, Sclavonia , in the second row, Rama (Bosnia) and Serbia, in the third row, Cumania, Galicia, Lodomeria and Bulgaria could be seen. In the base shield, the Hungarian and the Transylvanian coats of arms were located.

The Hungarian Coat of Arms.

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Prior to the korona, the Hungarians used the forint, where 1 forint (Gulden, in Austria) was equal to 100 krajczár (Kreuzer, in Austria). Why was that currency replaced?

[Figleaf]

A complicated question. Here's a simplified answer.

The short term answer is the change from a silver to a dual standard, as gold fell in silver terms when the California gold rush brought enormous (in terms of existing stocks of gold) quantities of new gold on the market. Austria had financial problems. The dual standard was subject to automatic inflation that would have helped Austria to repay its debt. However, both its allies and its arch-enemy, Prussia did not agree; important, because the successive customs unions were a game for influence and economic domination of the German speaking world that Austria could not afford to lose. Yet, in the currency treaty of Vienna (1857), the possibility was opened to coin gold Kronen coins. That same treaty signalled the end of the Austrian Gulden, in favour of the Prussian Taler.

Austria got in deeper financial trouble and issued paper money that devalued quickly, revamped its money only to see the same cycle of financial problems and reform happen again. In the end, the gold Krone became a silver coin that was introduced as the standard in the umpteenth currency reform, that held only until the next war.

The long term answer is the changing nature of warfare. For centuries, Austria (and Russia, but that is another story) were front line states, in almost constant war with the Ottoman empire. The Ottomans gradually lost that ongoing war, so it was a source of income by plunder for the Austrian state, while the cost was highest for the population of the farming villages on both sides that happened to be in the way of an army. The size of armies was restricted by the quantity of food it could carry and steal and how long it took for a contagious disease to break out. Arms were amazingly imprecise and ineffective.

Better medical care after the French revolution and the introduction of the potato made it possible to raise much larger armies for much longer. The rifled barrel made war far more deadly. These developments meant that war had become significantly more costly. Austria was not prepared for that change. The Crimean war (1853 - 1857) came when Austria had not yet recovered from the Napoleonic wars and exhausted the country financially. It brought about the spiral described above, ending only with the first world war.

In a larger framework, Austria, a hotchpotch of nationalities and cultures, was useful only as long as the Ottomans were a threat. When that was no longer the case, the empire slowly but inevitably fell apart into its constituent nationalities.

Peter

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Thank you, Figleaf. A lot of complex interplay going on there. 

[Prosit]

The first coin shown in this thread (10-Filler) is marked K B.
That is the mark at that time for the mint in Kremnitz. Kremnitz also used solely a K or a B as a mint mark at times.
BP however was the mint in Budapest.

I think it interesting to note the Hungarian coins were minted in Hungary during the dual Monarchy.

Dale

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That is the mark at that time for the mint in Kremnitz.

Usually referred to as Kremnica, these days. It's in Slovakia, apparently.