15 000 Forint Chamber of Notaries

From the end of the 13th century, there were notaries appointed under papal or imperial authority in Hungary, who were only entitled to perform their work in ecclesiastical matters. The modern notarial profession came into existence in 1874, when, as part of the justice system reform following the Compromise, Hungary’s National Assembly adopted Act XXXV of 1874 on Civil Law Notaries. Since then, in keeping with their motto of ‘law without dispute’, notaries have served the public by helping resolve legal issues without litigation. In 1949, the notarial profession was nationalized and integrated into state legal services, but following the change of regime it regained its independence and was organized on a chamber basis. Notaries are now important agents in business and society in Hungary, as they attend to attestation (fides publica) and provide impartial, non-litigious legal services (justitia). The coin highlights the main symbol of notaries and also pays tribute to Bálint Ökröss, who was responsible for drafting the 1874 law on the notarial profession. Ökröss (1829-1889) was an outstanding figure in the history of Hungarian notaries, a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the first president of the Budapest Chamber of Notaries. His name is also linked to the foundation of the Legal Gazette in 1866, a journal that continues to be published to this very day.