10 Forint Kossuth bankó

The "Kossuth bankó" series of 1848 was Hungary's first domestically issued paper currency, authorized by the revolutionary government under Lajos Kossuth as Finance Minister — a direct assertion of fiscal independence from Vienna during the upheaval of that year. Designed and engraved by József Tyroler and printed in Budapest, the notes were produced under genuinely difficult wartime conditions, with limited materials and no established state printing infrastructure.

The watermark security measure was modest by contemporary European standards, and the notes were widely counterfeited, a problem that plagued the series almost immediately after issue. Following the suppression of the Hungarian revolution by Austrian and Russian forces in 1849, the Habsburg authorities declared the Kossuth bankók invalid — possession was briefly treated as evidence of political sedition.