Florin - Matthias Corvinus

Matthias Corvinus came to the Hungarian throne in 1458 at around fifteen years old, the son of János Hunyadi whose military reputation had effectively kept the Ottoman advance in check for a decade. These early florins, struck in the first five years of his reign, were produced while Matthias was simultaneously managing a hostile nobility, paying off his own ransom from George of Poděbrady, and financing wars on multiple frontiers. Hungarian florins of this period maintained the weight and fineness standard set by Charles Robert of Anjou in 1325 — a standard so trusted that Hungarian gold circulated as an international trade currency across central Europe and the Levant.