18 November 2020
The Magyar Nemzeti Bank will issue a non-ferrous metal collector coin in a bronze coated finish named ‘Debrecen, Református Nagytemplom és Kollégium Nemzeti Emlékhely' (Debrecen Reformed Great Church and College) with a denomination of HUF 2000. The collector coin programme was launched at the initiative of the Hungarian Heritage Institute in 2014. This issuance offers a valuable contribution to the series depicting the Hungarian national memorial sites and follows the presentation of Somogyvár-Kupavár, Mohács, the New Public Cemetery in Rákoskeresztúr, Fiumei Road Cemetery, Esztergom, Castle Hill and Víziváros national memorial sites and the Parliament Building and its neighbourhood.
The primary role of collector coins is to offer education and raise awareness; therefore, they are not to be used in everyday payments. Their face value serves to preserve the value the coins represent to collectors.
The collector coins to honour the Debrecen Reformed Great Church and College, raise awareness of a national memorial sites, where members of the Hungarian Reformed Church fought for religious tolerance. The protestant education and institutional system also flourished and developed here. The College, which started its operation in 1538, was one of the spiritual cradles of Hungarian literary, scientific and political life.
In addition, the memorial site represents the legacy of the war of independence and the tradition of a policy to achieve independence. When the War of Independence was raging on in 1848 and 1849, the Interim Parliament passed the Hungarian Declaration of Independence here, in Debrecen on 14 April 1849, and declared that the House of Habsburg had been dethroned. The National Interim Assembly started working here on 21 December 1944, which set the objective of creating a new, democratic Hungary. The occasion of the coin issuance is that Móricz Zsigmond’s Légy jó mindhalálig (Be Good All Your Life) was published 100 years ago and its story is linked to the College.
The collector coin named ‘Debrecen, Református Nagytemplom és Kollégium Nemzeti Emlékhely' (Debrecen Reformed Great Church and College National Memorial Site) was designed by applied artist and goldsmith Zoltán Tóth.
On the obverse, a representation of the dome arch-stone of St Andrew church, displaying a sheep with a flag is shown. The church had been built in the same location in the Middle Ages as the Reformed Great Church stands today. The sheep with a flag constitutes an important symbol of the national memorial site, as the same motif is seen in the city’s coat-of-arms. The arch-stone on the obverse is displayed in the Museum of the Reformed College of Debrecen.
A lower, arched-shaped inscription reads the Latin wording ORANDO ET LABORANDO (Pray and work!), which is the Collage’s motto, in the upper legend, the lettering ‘MAGYARORSZÁG' (Hungary), to the left, on the horizontal middle line, the mint year ‘2020' and the mint mark ‘BP.' are found in two lines, and to the right, also in two lines the denomination ‘2000 FORINT'.
On the reverse, features parts of the buildings in the ‘Debrecen, Református Nagytemplom és Kollégium' (Debrecen, Reformed Great Church and College) National Memorial Site: the steeple of the Reformed Great Church with the Reformed College of Debrecen in the background. Around the edge of the reverse, the name of the memorial site can be read: at the top ‘REFORMÁTUS NAGYTEMPLOM ÉS KOLLÉGIUM', and at the bottom ‘DEBRECEN'. The two legends are separated by a dot on the left and the designer’s master mark on the right. The logo of national memorial sites, which is always featured on the coins in this series, and the ‘NEMZETI EMLÉKHELY' (national memorial site) above the College building are shown in three horizontal lines.
The collector coin ‘Debrecen, Református Nagytemplom és Kollégium Nemzeti Emlékhely' (Debrecen, Reformed Great Church and College National Memorial Site)
 Obverse |
 Reverse |
Similarly to all the other parts of the series, the collector coin is minted from an alloy of copper (90%) and nickel (10%). It weighs 18.4 grams and it is 37 mm in diameter and has a reeded edge. The mintage limit of the coins is 7,000 in a manually bronze coated finish.
To promote the collector coins' value transferring and educational role as widely as possible the ‘Debrecen, Református Nagytemplom és Kollégium Nemzeti Emlékhely' (Debrecen, Reformed Great Church and College National Memorial Site) collector coin can be purchased for one year after issuance, subject to availability at its face value at the coin shop of Hungarian Mint Ltd. (Budapest, distr. V, 7 Báthory street) from 18 November 2020 and in the company’s webshop (http://penzvero.hu/).