After the end of the World War II the inflation in Hungary was 4.19x 1016percent per month. It meaned that the prices doubled every 15 hours. Before 1945, the highest denomination was 1,000 Pengő. By the end of 1945, it was 10,000,000 Pengő. But the highest denomination in mid-1946 was 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 (100 quintillion) Pengő. In addition, one sextillion (1021) Pengő was also printed but was never issued. The Hungarian economy could only be stabilized by the introduction of a new currency. So on August 1, 1946, the Forint which is still used (till 2012?) was introduced at a rate of 400,000,000,000,000,000 000,000,000,000 (400 octillion - 4x1029) Pengő.
2 comments:
Do you have any photos of other Pengo denominations or do you know if it is possible to get hold of any of the old banknotes?
There are some photos of Pengő on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=pengo&w=all
And if you want to buy banknotes, I recommend you E-bay (http://www.ebay.com). I took a quick search for Pengo and there were results so you can buy from there.
But you can choose from much more Pengős on Vatera (http://www.vatera.hu). It is a site similar to E-bay but in Hungarian. However, I think you don't speak Hungarian so you should try E-bay.
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