Editing Hungarian forint (section)

==History==
{{more citations needed section|date=February 2015}}
[[File:Lajos I florint 768761.jpg|thumb|Forint of [[Louis I of Hungary]] (1342–1382). Reverse: {{sc|LODOVICVS DEI GRACIA REX}}. Obverse: {{sc|S[ANCTVS] IOHANNES B[APTISTA]}}.]]
[[File:111 Matthias Corvinus florint 755820.jpg|thumb|Forint of [[Matthias Corvinus of Hungary]] (1458–1490). Obverse: {{sc|S[ANCTVS] [[Ladislaus I|LADISLAVS]] REX}}. Reverse: {{sc|MATHIAS D[EI] G[RATIA] R[EX] VNGARIE}}.]]
The forint's name comes from the city of [[Florence]], where gold coins called ''[[Florin|fiorino d'oro]]'' were minted from 1252. In Hungary, the ''florentinus'' (later ''forint''), also a gold-based currency, was used from 1325 under [[Charles I of Hungary|Charles Robert]], with several other countries following Hungary's example.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Engel|first=Pál|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56676014|title=The realm of St. Stephen : a history of medieval Hungary, 895-1526|date=2001|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=1-4175-4080-X|location=London|oclc=56676014}}</ref>

Between 1868 and 1892, the forint was the name used in [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] for the currency of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], known in German as the [[Austro-Hungarian florin|''Gulden'']]. It was subdivided into 100 [[krajczar|krajczár]] (''krajcár'' in modern Hungarian orthography; cf German ''Kreuzer'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/a-stable-currency-in-search-of-a-stable-empire-the-austro-hungarian-experie|title=A stable currency in search of a stable Empire? The Austro-Hungarian experience of monetary union|publisher=History & Policy|date=19 April 2017}}</ref>

The forint was reintroduced on 1 August 1946, after the [[Hungarian pengő|pengő]] was rendered worthless by massive [[hyperinflation]] in 1945–46, the highest ever recorded. This was brought about by a mixture of the high demand for reparations from the [[USSR]], Soviet plundering of Hungarian industries, and the holding of Hungary's gold reserves in the [[United States]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=GLOSSARY|url=http://www.rev.hu/history_of_45/szerviz/kislex/kislexis_uk.htm#inflation|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.rev.hu}}</ref> The different parties in the government had different plans to solve this problem. To the [[Independent Smallholders' Party]]–which had won a large majority in the [[1945 Hungarian parliamentary election]]–as well as the [[Social Democratic Party of Hungary|Social Democrats]], outside support was essential. However, the Soviet Union and its local supporters in the [[Hungarian Communist Party]] were opposed to raising loans in the West, and thus the Communist Party masterminded the procedure using exclusively domestic resources. The Communist plan called for tight limits on personal spending, as well as the concentration of existing stocks{{clarify|date=November 2022}} in state hands.<ref>[http://www.rev.hu/history_of_45/ora1/ora1_e.htm "An Attempt at a New, Democratic Start: 1944–1946". The Institute for the History of the 1956 Revolution.]</ref>

When the forint was introduced, its value was defined on the basis of 1 kilogram of fine gold being 13,210 Ft (or 1 Ft = 75.7&nbsp;mg fine gold). Therefore, given that gold was fixed at £8 8s (£8.40 in modern decimal notation) sterling per troy ounce, one pound sterling was at that time worth about 49 forint.