500 Forint Béla Bartók

Hungary issued this piece in 1961 to mark the 80th anniversary of Bartók's birth, part of a broader postwar Hungarian program of high-gold commemoratives aimed partly at foreign exchange earnings. Bartók himself had died in New York in 1945, effectively stateless and in poverty, his remains not returned to Hungary until 1988 — long after the Communist government had conveniently claimed him as a national cultural hero.

Mintage was extremely low, produced largely for export sale and collector markets rather than domestic circulation. The .986 fineness is notably purer than most contemporary European commemorative gold issues.