| Obverse description |
Central text panel carries the denomination TIZEZER KORONA in bold letterpress, with the Hungarian-language legal tender clause and issue date BUDAPEST, 1920. ÉVI JANUÁR HÓ 1-ÉN below, accompanied by the Pénzügyminister signature. To the right, an oval vignette presents the Patrona Hungariae — the Virgin Mary enthroned with the Christ Child — framed by the inscription PATRONA HUNGARIAE, set within elaborate guilloche borders; the Hungarian coat of arms appears at the top centre. |
| Reverse description |
The reverse is dominated by a central rectangular panel bearing the denomination in five languages arranged symmetrically: ZECE MII COROANE (Romanian, upper left), ZEHNTAUSEND KRONEN (German, upper right), DESAŤ TISÍC KORÚN (Slovak, lower left), ДЕСЕТ ХИЉАДА КРУНА (Serbian, lower right), and ДЕСЯТЬ ТЫСЯЧЪ КОРОНЪ (Russian, bottom centre), all surrounding a bold central cartouche reading TIZEZER KORONA. The entire composition is enclosed within dense, symmetrical guilloche framework with the numeral 10000 repeated in each corner. |
Hungary's postwar inflation in the early 1920s was among the worst in Central Europe, and this 10,000 Korona was very much a product of that spiral — a denomination that would have been unthinkable before 1918 now barely covered ordinary transactions. The Ministry of Finance rather than the central bank issued it directly, a structural detail that reflects just how thoroughly the Austro-Hungarian banking apparatus had collapsed after the armistice.
Printing was contracted to Orell Füssli in Zurich because Hungary's domestic printing capacity was inadequate to meet the volume demanded by runaway inflation. The korona was eventually replaced by the pengő in 1927, at a rate of 12,500 korona to one pengő.