A new currency system was introduced in Hungary on the first day of the 20th century. From 1 January 1900, the krajczár was replaced by the fillér and the forint by the korona. Changes in postal rates also required new stamps. A public competition was held to replace the “Krajczár” issue, which had then been in use for 26 years. The fillér denominations, based on designs by János Bőhm, depict a traditional sweep well, the Hungarian plain, the Turul and the Holy Crown. The korona values were designed by Ödön Tull and show a bust of Franz Joseph I. The stamps were typographed in two separate operations, with the stamp design and denomination numeral printed separately, in printing sheets of 4 × 100 stamps. They remained in use for 18 years. Although apparently uniform, the issue is in fact highly varied and is a favourite of many collectors: over those 18 years the stamps appeared on papers with five different watermarks and with three different perforations, and more than two billion examples were printed. Numerous watermark positions, colour shades, catalogued plate flaws and marginal printer’s markings are known.
This issue marked the beginning of a new philatelic era: it was the first issue of Hungary’s korona–fillér stamps. Hungary · 1900
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