Hungary. 1,000 Forint 2013. "The Stars of Eger." 150th birthday of Géza Gárdony. Proof

Hungary 1,000 Forint 2013. 150th birthday of Géza Gárdony, author of Hungary’s favorite novel, The Stars of Eger. Proof

The 150th anniversary of birth of the writer Géza Gárdonyi (Mar. 8,1863 - Oct. 10, 1922) is being celebrated by Hungary with the issue of a base metal collector coin, depicting the portrait of the author and the scene of the battle against the Ottoman Turks at the castle of Eger in 1552. This heroic and glorious fight inspired Gárdonyi to write its history. His novel the Stars of Eger or the Eclipse of the Crescent Moon, which has been printed some 4 million times in Hungary and translated into 20 languages (including Turkish most recently in 2013) is considered Hungary’s favorite novel.
The coin's designer, Gábor BenőPogány was inspired by the 1867 painting Women of Eger by Bertalan Székely, in which the central motif is the figure of a woman in the midst of a wild battle scene  as rendered on the reverse. The coin thus pays tribute both to the eternal memory of the defenders of the Castle of Eger and Gárdonyi's classic work.
The techincal details of the coin are as follows:

Face value: 1,000 HUF            Material: CuNiZn (copper-nickel-zinc)
Weight: 9.4 g            Diameter: 29.2 mm
Max.mintage: 10,000 pcs in proof quality only