Polturas in Ottoman Hungary and the Principality of Transylvania

Abstract

Errare humanum est – “to err is human”. This oft-heard saying is most applicable to certain details of Hungarian monetary historiography. We find in the specific area of numismatic history the well-established view that the Polish półtorak, known in Hungary poltura,1 was a key culprit in the inflation thatraged in Central Europe in the early 1620s. Hungarian-language sources do indeed distinguish and appraise several different polturas: by age (old and new), colour (white and brown), size (small and large),2 quality (good and bad) and origin (Polish and Transylvanian). The latter distinction, however, directly implies that not all coins named “poltura” were of Polish origin. The number of different versions itself arouses suspicion – could this Polish smalldenomination coin really have been issued in so many different forms?