New forint coins are poised to be introduced, featuring Nobel-prize laureates Karikó and Krausz
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The Hungarian National Bank will issue two new silver and non-ferrous metal coins this year.
According to Infóstart, the national bank intends to commemorate the 220th birthday of Ferenc Deák, known as ‘The Wise Man of the Nation’, and the 300th anniversary of the foundation of the Kúria with this move. These two coins will be crafted from non-ferrous metals. Additionally, the national bank plans to issue two more silver coins to honour the Hungarian Nobel laureates, Katalin Karikó and Ferenc Krausz.
Karikó, a Hungarian biochemist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine, alongside Drew Weissman, for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Meanwhile, Krausz received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics ‘for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter,’ alongside Pierre Agostini and Anne L’Huillier. The last time a Hungarian or Hungarian-born individual received the Nobel Prize was in 2002 when Imre Kertész was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work, ‘Fatelessness’ (Sorstalanság).
With over 20 years having passed since a Hungarian last received the Nobel Prize, the nation was delighted to learn that two Hungarian scientists have received this honour. Katalin Karikó now occupies the former workplace of Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Györgyi (1937 – medicine) at the Molecular and Analytical Chemistry lab at Szeged University.
