5000 Forint

The 1999 series 5000 Forint was part of Hungary's systematic replacement of the post-communist banknote set, a process that stretched across the 1990s as the Magyar Nemzeti Bank gradually retired the Soviet-era designs. The obverse design draws on a portrait by Friedrich von Amerling, the 19th-century Viennese portraitist — the original oil painting is held in Budapest, and its use on Hungarian currency had precedent going back decades before this issue.

Magyar Pénzjegynyomda has handled Hungarian note production since 1923 and printed this series entirely in-house, including intaglio work by Károly Vagyóczky on the obverse and Károly Bojtos on the reverse — two of the printing company's senior engravers active through the 1990s reforms.