10 Forint

The 1949 10 Forint belongs to the first major series issued after Hungary's catastrophic hyperinflation of 1945–46 — still the most severe recorded in monetary history — which forced the complete replacement of the pengő with the forint in August 1946. By 1949, the new Communist government was consolidating control over all institutions including the central bank, and this series visually signaled that political shift.

Unusually for the period, design and engraving were handled domestically at the Pénzjegynyomda in Budapest rather than contracted abroad — a deliberate assertion of industrial self-sufficiency under the new regime. Endre Horváth both designed and engraved the obverse, a relatively rare instance of one hand controlling both stages of a note's face.