20 000 Forint István Széchenyi

István Széchenyi, the 19th-century reformer who funded the construction of the Chain Bridge and co-founded the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, famously spent a year in a Viennese psychiatric facility from 1848 onward — driven there partly by the catastrophic failure of his political vision as revolution overtook the measured reform path he had championed. He died there in 1860, under circumstances that remain disputed; the official finding was suicide, though suspicion of Habsburg involvement persisted for generations.

This issue belongs to a long-running Magyar Nemzeti Bank commemorative program honoring foundational national figures. The 2016 striking used the standard .925 alloy the series had employed since its higher-denomination silver issues began scaling up in the early 2000s.