Collector coin to honour Milton Friedman

9 July 2022

In honour of the 110th anniversary of Milton Friedmann’s birth, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank will issue a silver collector coin with a face value of 15,000 forints, and its a non-ferrous version of 2,000 forints on Monday, 11 July 2022. The collector coins come as the second piece in the series presenting Nobel Memorial Prize winners of Hungarian descent following the Harsányi János collector coin issued in 2020. The collector coins were designed by sculptor Tamás E. Soltra.

Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006) was one of the economists who had the greatest effect in the 20th century. He was born in New York to Hungarian Jewish immigrant parents. He worked in both the theoretical and the applied areas of economics. He started the monetary movement and founded the Chicago School of Economics. Milton Friedman believed in the free market’s capacity to create prosperity. Friedman was a renegade: he formulated views going against the Keynesian Economics, prevalent in the 1940s and 1960s, which emphasised the importance of active economic policy on the supply side. Later, these views were incorporated into the scientific mainstream during the oil crisis in the 1970s forcing a paradigm change in both economics and the practice of economic policy. Since then, Friedman has been one of the most recognised figures in mainstream economics. In 1976, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize for his contribution in consumption analysis, money history and theory and for the presentation of the complexity of stabilisation policy.

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank will issue a silver collector coin with a face value of 15,000 forints named Milton Friedman and its non-ferrous metal version of 2,000 forints. The primary role of the coins is to raise awareness and educate with no role in cash circulation. The silver and non-ferrous metal coins have the same design, the only difference being their denominations.

The central motif on the obverse features a hand balancing a pencil. The pencil was an instrument frequently appearing at the lectures given by Milton Friedman, which he used as an illustrative example to introduce the connections between the effects of the free market and social cooperation. Above the representation of the pencil, the formula “M×v=P×Q”, describing the turnover balance of money, is seen, which played a central role in Friedman’s reinterpretation of the quantity theory of money. That is, the velocity of money and the product of the quantity of money is equal to the product of the price level and real GDP, assuming that the number of transactions is proportional to real GDP. The formula of the turnover equation was originally formulated by the American economist and statistician Irving Fisher at the beginning of the 20th century, which was reformulated by Friedman and brought back into the mainstream of economics.

Broken into three lines, below the representation of the pencil, the inscription “MAGYARORSZÁG” (Hungary), the denominations “15000” and “2000” and the lettering “FORINT” are seen. Slightly towards the bottom, in two lines, the mint year “2022” and the mint mark “BP.” are found.

The obverse of the “Milton Friedman” collector coins

On the reverse, the half-body portrait of Milton Friedman is featured. To the left of the portrait, in two lines the lettering “MILTON FRIEDMAN” and the two years “1912-2006” are placed, referring to the birth and death of the Nobel Memorial Prize winner economist. On the right edge of the reverse, in the middle the master mark of sculptor Tamás E. Soltra is seen, who designed the coin.

The reverse of the “Milton Friedman” collector coins

Both collector coins have a diameter of 38.61 mm with a milled edge. The silver coin with a face value of 15,000 forints is struck in .925 fine silver and weighs 31.46 grams. The non-ferrous metal coin with a face value of 2,000 forints is produced from an alloy of copper (75%) and nickel (25%) and weighs 30.80 grams. 4000 pieces can be made of the silver collector coin in proof finish and also 4,000 pieces of the non-ferrous version in BU finish.

In order to promote the role of these collector coins to transfer value and raise awareness as widely as possible, the silver coin “Milton Friedman” will be available for purchase for three months, while stocks last, and the non-ferrous version for one year from the date of issuance, at face value in the webshop (https://www.penzvero.hu/) and coin shop of Hungarian Mint Ltd. (Budapest, distr. V, 7 Báthory street), the producer and the distributor of the coins, starting from 11 July 2022.