Károly Vagyóczky, the stamp designer

Károly Vagyóczky, the stamp designer
Károly Vagyóczky is mainly known as a banknote designer, even though he also made his mark as a stamp designer during his long career. His first stamp was issued in 1971 and over the decades his creations were awarded the title of Most Beautiful Stamp of the Year three times.
Among his numerous noteworthy philatelic creations made with a sophisticated techniques, the series of Nobel Prize-winning Hungarian scientists, the block commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II and other philatelic products designed for stamp collectors are also outstanding.
During his career, he had the honour of designing stamps depicting his great predecessors, Ferenc Helbing and Sándor Légrády, as well his master, Zoltán Nagy.

Károly Vagyóczky, the banknote designer
Károly Vagyóczky had to concentrate on designing banknotes in the early years after joining the Banknote Printing Company. Even though no new banknotes were introduced for many decades, minor changes were made to existing ones. Over a decade after they were first printed, the last two denominations of the old banknote series, the 1000 forint banknote depicting Béla Bartók issued in 1983, and the 5000 forint banknote depicting István Széchenyi issued in 1991 were designed by Károly Vagyóczky.
Magyar Nemzeti Bank decided to replace certain denominations of its obsolete banknotes, some of which were in circulation for almost 50 years with modern ones in the middle of the 1990s. Károly Vagyóczky was assigned the task of designing the final graphics. The artist harmoniously combined the sophisticated portraits and reverse images with functional graphic elements that reflect the needs of the time and the cash circulation, and serve to protect against counterfeiting and to facilitate identification, in a manner worthy of his predecessors.
On the reverse of the last 2000 forint millennium banknote he designed, featuring a traditional aluminium alloy metal holographic strip using 22 carat gold, he included the famous painting The Baptism of Vajk by Gyula Benczúr, which used to adorn the reverse of the 1000 pengő issued in 1927.

Balaton korona
Balaton korona is a money substitute, also known as a technical currency, which, unlike so-called legal tender that is required to be accepted by law, only fulfils a limited function of value measurement and medium of exchange but is not suitable for accumulation.
Balaton Korona was issued by the local governments of seven municipalities in Veszprém county (Veszprém, Várpalota, Balatonfüred, Balatonalmádi, Litér, Tihany and Nemesvámos), the County Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Balatoni Korona Zrt. founded by Kinizsi Bank.
It was issued on 22 March, 2012. The vouchers were designed by Károly Vagyóczky. Denominations are identical to those of forint banknotes. Vouchers are in Hungarian and English so that foreign tourists can also trust them.
The denominations of the money substitute depicted historical figures like Queen Gizella, Andrew I or even Mór Jókai.

Graphic Art School of the Banknote Printing Company
Copperplate printing is an intaglio printing process, which means that the drawing to be reproduced is incised into a plate, and the paper takes up the ink that is set in the intaglio lines. The original single image can be produced in two ways: etching and engraving. Etching requires the use of chemicals, while engraving is entirely made by hand.
Representatives of the Graphic Art School of the Banknote Printing Company were highly skilled in engraving, earning Hungarian banknotes and stamps recognition all over Europe. Sometimes the artist who designs the original graphics of the engraving and the engraver are two different people; however, usually the artist who designed the graphics is the one who engraves it into the plate. It is an incredibly meticulous process, demanding immense patience and superhuman precision, because there is no room for correction in this case. This is the most preparation- and knowledge-intensive technology of all printing processes. However, this is beautifully reflected in how the final product looks. Before the emergence of modern technology, there was no other way to produce the fine, sharp, clean lines and the plastic, almost three-dimensional graphics that could be achieved with copperplate printing.
Károly Vagyóczky continues a genre that has earned Endre Horváth, Zoltán Nagy, Ferenc Gál, Mihály Füle, József Vertel, László Kékesi and Sándor Légrády recognition at European level. This is the so-called Graphic Art School of the Banknote Printing Company, whose renowned artists such as Károly Bojtos, András Szunyoghy, Szabolcs Zsitva, György Lengyel, or talented students such as Attila Elekes and György Pálinkás, who are still active today, have contributed to its reputation. Whatever was and is accomplished by the artists of the Graphic Art School of the Banknote Printing Company is a “praise of art”.