The forint was introduced in Hungary on 1 August 1946. The introduction of the new currency also marked the end of one of the most severe episodes of hyperinflation in world history. Since then, the forint has become part of everyday life for generations and, over eight decades, has accompanied countless turning points in Hungarian history.
The birth of the forint naturally also marked the beginning of a new era on stamps: the Forint–fillér period. Stamps denominated in fillér continued to be issued until 1981; since then, Hungarian stamps have been issued exclusively with forint denominations.
The first stamps of the new era were also placed on sale on 1 August 1946. The series was designed by György Konecsni. The fillér denominations were printed in reddish brown, while the forint values were printed in green.
The 60 fillér denomination had the largest print run, with nearly 27 million examples produced. The rarest denomination in the series is the 10 forint, of which 1.6 million examples were issued.
Because of repeated printings, numerous colour shades are known. Moreover, the stamps were printed with rather poor-quality inks: soaking can cause a significant loss of the original colour, and the reddish-brown ink fades easily in sunlight. As a result, albums may contain countless shades of reddish brown and green, especially among used stamps. Imperforate varieties of the series were also issued, although their print run is unknown.
It is particularly interesting that, despite being a high-volume definitive series, mint never-hinged examples are relatively scarce. Today, the market price of a complete mint never-hinged set exceeds that of many commemorative stamp sets from the same period.
