The Silver of Fairyland: A Transylvanian Thaler Collection in the Magyar Nemzeti Bank

The Silver of Fairyland by Csaba Tóth / A Transylvanian Thaler Collection in the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Hungarian national Bank) / Illustrations: Gellért Áment, András Dabasi, Erika Czikkely Nagy, Judit Kardos / Magyar Nemzeti Bank The Silver of Fairyland, a book on a 220 piece Transylvanian Thaler collection purchased by the Hungarian National Bank (Magyar Nemzeti Bank). It was published simultaneously in the Hungarian and English languages. It has 240 pages; Csaba Toth is the Editor in Chief. It had been collected by three generations of the Toro family. It is a beautiful book. All 220 pieces are plated, and illustrations are on almost every page. Each Prince that issued coins in this collection has a full page picture. It states that a decision was to build the collection with die varieties, especially of the Princes that had longer reigns, and issued numerous varieties. An interesting history is given of the purchases through the years. There are seven different chapters, each written by a different numismatist. One of them has thirteen pages of plates of 17th century coin dies from the Brasso (Kronstadt) mint. The Central Bank has released a book entitled "Silver of the Fairy Garden - The Collection of Transylvanian Thaler Coins at the Magyar Nemzeti Bank". This richly illustrated 240-page work provides a complete catalogue of the collection of Transylvanian thalers purchased as part of the Értéktár Programme, with detailed descriptions and life-size photographs of all 220 thaler coins and commemorative coins in the collection.