Gyula Mészáros (; 1883 – 1957) was a Hungarian ethnographer, Orientalist and

Turkologist Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and the Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative c ...

. Later in his career he became involved in a money counterfeiting scheme.

Money counterfeiting

In 1921, a group of Hungarian nationalists led by Mészáros set up a press in the town of Metzelsdorf outside

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

, Austria. The group managed to produce and put into circulation 60,000 500-

Czechoslovak koruna The Czechoslovak koruna (in Czech and Slovak: ''koruna československá'', at times ''koruna česko-slovenská''; ''koruna'' means ''crown'') was the currency of Czechoslovakia from 10 April 1919 to 14 March 1939, and from 1 November 1945 to 7 ...

banknotes, with the intent of damaging the Czechoslovak economy. Most of the forgers were arrested in July 1921, by that time the Czechoslovak government was forced to pull the entire sokol note series out of circulation, undermining the credibility of its currency reforms. Mészáros' case was dismissed by an Austrian court without going to trial, as there were no provisions to punish forgers who did not operate for personal gain. The following year, Mészáros approached Prince with a plan to counterfeit the

French franc The franc (; , ; currency sign, sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amoun ...

. Windischgraetz agreed to provide funding for the operation with , the Chief Captain of National Police joining the plot in the same year. The plan was put to a halt when Mészáros immigrated to Turkey and Windischgraetz realized that it relied on crude printing technology. Windischgraetz nevertheless pursued the execution of the plan with help from abroad in what came to be known as the

Franc affair The Franc affair () was a plot by Hungarian nationalists to forge French bank notes. In the aftermath of World War I, Hungary lost a large part of its territory and population in a series of treaties its people considered unjust. This led many H ...

Footnotes

References

* Hungarian ethnographers 1883 births 1957 deaths Hungarian orientalists Turkologists Counterfeiters {{Hungary-scientist-stub