Hungary is one of the most promising countries of the European Union, which, despite this, has still not switched to the euro and does not plan to switch in the near future. Despite the fact that the government periodically states that the forint should be replaced by the euro, there are no clear plans yet. As a result, forint is used for all settlements within the country and the situation won’t change in the near future.

Hungarian Forint History

The name forint came from the city of Florence, where from 1252 minted gold coins were called fiorino d'oro (Florentine gold). In Hungary, the example of which was followed by several other countries, forint coins were introduced, which were minted in gold. After the accession of Hungary to the Austrian Empire, the name was not used and was introduced into use only in 1868 and was an alternative name for Austrian florin.

After 1892, the forint went out of circulation and was returned only in 1946, when it replaced pengo as the state currency. The forint was originally a fairly stable currency. However, economic problems in the Hungarian economy in the 1970s and general problems in the socialist economies in the 1980s caused the depreciation of the currency. The Hungarian forint was hit especially hard by inflation, which in the 1990s amounted to over 30%. Over time, market changes and EU accessions allowed the currency to stabilize, but this affected its exchange rate and the fact that the forint has too many zeros.

Payments with Hungarian Forint

The Hungarian forint is used as legal tender throughout the payment territory and can be freely exchanged for other currencies without any restrictions. At the moment, the forint remains quite competitive compared to the dollar, despite the low exchange rate. 1 dollar as of November 2019 costs 302 forints. 1 euro costs 334 forints. For more than 20 years, the forint has remained a stable currency, which has a low inflation rate. Forint is used both for cashless and cash payments. If rounding does not occur for cashless payments, then for cash, rounding takes place up to 5 forints. That is, if the price of the product is 3546 forints in cash, then you will pay 3545. This should also be taken into account for those who are interested in Hungarian forint accepting online casino sites of high quality, as it’s always better to pay with non-cash.

Forint Notes and Coins  

Initially, the forint, like most other currencies, had banknotes in denominations of 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 forints. Until 1999, there was a loose coin filler at the rate of 1 forint containing 100 fillers. After 1999, fillers are not used, since due to the large values of money, their face value is lower than the cost of minting coins.

A new series of banknotes in denominations of 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, and 20,000 forints was introduced between 1997 and 2001 in response to rising inflation. The difference between banknotes was that they have no watermarks, but the banknotes have a vertical security strip, with a value of over 1000 forints protected by a holographic strip. All forints of the same size are 154 × 70 mm. Currently, coins are issued in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 forints, the latter introduced instead of banknotes of the same denomination.