The postal administration issued an eight-denomination commemorative airmail stamp set depicting winter sports scenes. The 1.20 and 2 forint denominations were released on 27 January 1955, on the occasion of the European Figure Skating and Ice Dancing Championships held in Budapest. In 1955 the series received the title “Most Beautiful Stamp of the Year”.
In the Ten Years’ Most Beautiful Hungarian Stamp poll launched in 1962, the series again took first place. The European Figure Skating and Ice Dancing Championships were also a major success: thanks to the sibling pair Marianna Nagy and László Nagy, Hungary won a gold medal. The pair represented Hungary from 1947 to 1958; they competed at three Winter Olympics and won bronze at Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1956. They became European champions in Oslo in 1950 and in Budapest in 1955, and ended their careers after the 1958 European Championships in Bratislava.
A contemporary newsreel covering the 1955 Budapest competition can be viewed at the end of the article.
