Denier - Béla II

Béla II's reign was defined almost entirely by the political violence that preceded it — he was blinded as a child on the orders of King Stephen II, a common fate for dynastic rivals in twelfth-century Hungary. That he survived to rule at all was the result of clerical protection, and his court remained dominated by the powerful queen Ilona of Rascia and the nobility that installed her.

These small hammered pieces circulated in a kingdom still building its minting infrastructure, with output organized around royal estates rather than fixed urban mints.