100 Forint Interest Paying Legal Tender Treasury Bill

This note belongs to the first wave of Hungarian paper currency issued following the April Laws of 1848, which granted Hungary autonomous financial institutions for the first time under Habsburg rule. Lajos Kossuth, then Finance Minister, authorized the issue to fund the revolutionary government — these Kincstártári utalványok were not conventional banknotes but interest-bearing instruments, paying five percent annually, a concession designed to win public acceptance of paper money in a country that had never had its own currency.

Landerer és Heckenast was the most prominent printing house in Pest at the time, better known for publishing political literature than banknotes. The choice was pragmatic — there was no other facility capable of the volume required on short notice.