In 2012 the Central Bank of Hungary started issuing the Hungarian Nobel Prize winners series. Before we talk about the coins, let's take a moment to understand who are the Hungarian Nobel Prize winners.

The answer is not all that obvious. It only depends on whom do we consider Hungarian. Those who were born in Hungary, those who completed the work which earned the Nobel Prize in Hungary, those who considered themselves Hungarian, or those who have Hungarian origin. Even the country of birth is questionable, because the first Nobel Prize winners were born in Austro-Hungary. According to international publications, nine Hungarians have received the Nobel Prize. According to Hungarian publications, this number varies, but can be as high as 16. During the first half of the XX. century, many Hungarians had to leave their homeland and often changed their citizenship as well. It is noteworthy, however, that no matter what the number is that we accept, only two Nobel Prize winners have traveled directly from Hungary to Norway to accept their awards, Albert Szent-Györgyi in 1937, and Imre Kertész in 2002.

Even if we accept nine, the lowest number of Nobel Prize winners, Hungary is the 20th country in the rank of Nobel Prize per capita.

It is not obvious in what order will the Central Bank of Hungary issue commemoratives for the prize winners. It appears that while trying to stick to the chronological order, they also try to tie issuing to anniversaries.

The first coin, in 2012, a silver 3000 Forint, was to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Albert Szent-Györgyi's award of the Nobel Prize. We can find Szent-Györgyi's portrait on the obverse, and a paprika on the reverse. Szent-Györgyi was the first to extract vitamin C in a larger quantity from the paprika.

The second coin, a 3000 Forint was issued in 2013 commemorating the 50th anniversary of Jeno (Eugene) Wigner's award of the Nobel Prize. The reverse of the coin contains a stylized atomic structure, and the equation of Wigner-Eckart theorem. He was awarded for his nuclear research.

The third of the series was a 5000 silver Forint, and a 2000 copper-nickel Forint commemorating the 100th anniversary of Róbert Bárány's award of the Nobel Prize, issued in 2014. The reverse of the coin depicts a spiral staircase, representing the structure of the inner ear, because his research contributed to diagnosing and treating inner ear infections.

The fourth of the series, in 2015, was also issued both as silver (5000 Forint), and copper-nickel (2000 Forint), commemorating the 150thbirthday of Richard Zsigmondi, and his 90th anniversary of receiving the Nobel Prize. The reverse of the coin contains an ultramicroscope which Zsigmondi invented, and proved the existance of nanoparticles.

The Central Bank of Hungary did not announce the next coin of the series yet.

It is worth noting that all coins of the series have an oval shape and a size of 25/30 milimeters.