Catalog
2 Forint Philadelphia
| Issuer | Hungarian State Treasury (Kossuth emigration issue) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1852 |
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| Printer | Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co. |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | KÉT FORINT / Ezen pénzjegy minden és közpénztárban gyámánt, három számitva, dijogálittatik értéke a közállamány / magyar álladalmi két ezüst forint huszast egy forintra a teljes névszerinti által biztositatik / Sz. / Sor A. / 18 |
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| Signature(s) | Lajos Kossuth |
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| Comments |
Kossuth's American fund-raising tour of 1851–52 generated enormous public enthusiasm but almost no usable hard currency — hence these notes, printed in Philadelphia by one of the premier American security printers of the period and intended to finance a Hungarian liberation army that never materialized. The issue had no legal backing of any kind: there was no Hungarian state in 1852, no treasury behind the signature, and no territory in which the notes could circulate.
Kossuth signed examples himself. That detail alone accounts for much of their survival, as American admirers kept them as souvenirs rather than spending them.