2017-04-05 Wed

János Arany was a famous Hungarian poet, teacher, editor, Secretary of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Hungary celebrated the 200th Birth anniversary of János Arany with the release of a 5,000-forint miniature gold coin, a 10,000-forint silver coin and an identical 2,000-forint copper-nickel coin. The obverse features a golden motif with titles of Arany’s most important works. The reverse features a portrait of Arany by Miklós Barabás.

The .999 fine proof-like .5 gms gold coin costs $67.50. The proof silver one weighs 31.46 gms and costs $76.50 while the uncirculated copper-nickel one is 30.8 gms and costs $19.50. The mintage limit of all three coins is 5,000 pieces.

Arany was born to a poor family and eight out of his nine siblings died of tuberculosis. He became a tutor at the age of 11 to support his old parents. From a very early age, he started reading great works on Latin, Greek, German, English and French literature and contributed a lot of translations including famous works of Shakespeare. He used 60 thousand individual words in his works, a number far better than fellow writers of his times. He is also known as the Shakespeare of ballads, the notary of Szalonta and the listening man.