Here are my latest additions to my award-winning Hungarian Patterns collection: 1974BP 100 Forint Silver National Bank 50th Anniversary Adamo Pattern #EME14 This is an early concept for the design of the National Bank 50th Anniversary commemorative. Issues with getting the reverse to fully strike up caused this design to not be selected for the final concept, which ultimately went in a completely different direction. This is a proof version of the above. Note the striking problems on the reverse even for the proof. 1975BP 200 Forint Liberation Anniversary Adamo Pattern #EME15 This is an early concept of the Liberation Anniversary commemorative that was not selected for the design of the final piece. And below is the proof version of this pattern.
1977BP 200 Forint Silver National Museum Anniversary Adamo Pattern #EME18.1 This is the second version of the National Museum Anniversary commemorative with an alternative design for the falcon. And the proof version of this pattern: 1977BP 200 Forint Silver National Museum Anniversary Adamo Pattern #EM55 This is the probaveret of the final version (version 3) of the National Museum Anniversary commemorative. And the proof version of this pattern:
1979BP 200 Forint Silver Year of the Child Adamo Pattern #EME19 This is an early concept of the Year of the Child commemorative. The commemorative would ultimately be produced, but with an alternate design. 1994BP 1000 Forint Silver EXPO 96 Adamo Pattern #EME37 This type was designed to commemorate the Expo96 event, however, the event was cancelled due to cost overruns before the coin was produced, and so production of this type was cancelled. Of note, this coin was a part of a 2 coin set, but unlike this coin, the other coin (a 500 Forint EXPO 96 commemorative) was actually produced in 1993 just prior to the cancellation of the event. And the proof version of this pattern: 1982BP 20 Forint Rakoczi Adamo Pattern #FT2 And this is my latest pickup from an auction in Budapest. This is an early concept for the 1982 20 forint which was ultimately not produced. Oddly enough this is the only unproduced design for a circulating Hungarian coin during the Soviet era, making it extremely sought out. This is a very rare piece which is now the crown jewel of my nearly complete set of Soviet period patterns for circulating issues.
Very nice. Are there lots of Hungarian patterns out there? I used to own a few Polish patterns and there are tons of them!
Yes, but it depends on the period. I'll summarize it quickly here but it's somewhat reductive: Prior to 1915 : These are not very available but are only somewhat expensive. Since it's impossible to assemble a cohesive set (many are unique pieces) there are fewer collectors for this material and thus, there is less demand. I have quite a few pieces from this period, but they have all been opportunistic purchases and not patterns that I hunted for. 1915-1949 : These are very desirable, extremely rare, and extremely expensive as there are many collectors and high demand. Typical examples go for $3500-$10,000 though there are some cheaper pieces in the $1500-$3500 range (not many). I have only 12 pieces from this period and all but one were acquired from individual collectors over the years. Auction prices go through the roof now. An interesting note, the mint started adding a Probaveret mark of some type to patterns around 1943, though it took a few years to standardize this and there are also exceptions. 1950 : Very common and relatively cheap but just for this one year (relatively high mintages up to 2000 pieces). I've found examples for under $10. 1957-2011 : This is the sweet spot. This period is highly collectible as most patterns had mintages of 50 pieces per strike type which seems to be plentiful enough to make them very affordable at $300-$500 for most examples. Only a few pieces are in this period are truly rare but even those top out at maybe $1500. This is the bulk of my collection at around 100 pieces from this period. There are many sub sets in this period that can absolutely be completed given 5-10 years of collecting. 2012 - present : Only 6 pieces are available of any given type, and many only had one strike type struck as a pattern, even when multiple strike types were produced. Most examples are $1500-$2500 even for less desirable pieces just because the mintage is insufficient to meet collector demand. I have only 8 pieces from this period, and some I've been actively looking for for years and just can't find because they never come up for sale.
