Last updated: September 2026

Which currencies no longer exist?

At least 169 currency and fund codes have been formally retired since 1978, when the ISO 4217 currency standard began keeping count. The table below lists 60 of them, filtered to units that genuinely ended: 21 national currencies absorbed by the euro and 39 retired because a state dissolved, a reform replaced the unit, or a new name was needed.

The source is the ISO 4217 historic table, List Three, maintained by SIX Financial Information in Zurich as the standard's Maintenance Agency and published 1 January 2026 with 169 entries (ISO 4217 List Three). Successors come from the register of currencies in use today (ISO 4217 List One). Ended carries the euro cash date for the euro rows and, for the rest, the month the agency withdrew the code. Its earliest entries carry a window rather than a month, which is why the Rhodesian dollar shows a range, and anything that ended before 1978 is absent, so the Biafran pound sits outside it.

Sources: euro dates and exchange deadlines from the European Central Bank; all other end dates and successors from ISO 4217 List Three and List One. Availability is a dealer's read of how readily notes turn up, not a price quote or a scarcity census.

What happened to the money of countries that no longer exist?

It stopped being money and became the only physical record most people will ever hold of a state that is gone. When a country dissolves its banknotes are often left unredeemed, unless a successor state takes the exchange on. That is the biggest single reason dissolved-state paper survives in quantity.

The Soviet Union is the clearest case. The rouble code SUR was withdrawn in December 1990, and the agency then recorded the rouble retired separately in Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan between January 1993 and May 1995. Several printed a stopgap first, which is why four transitional units appear here: the Ukrainian karbovanets, the Georgian coupon, the Latvian ruble and the Lithuanian talonas.

Czechoslovakia split cleanly: its koruna was withdrawn in March 1993 for a Czech koruna and a Slovak koruna, and the Slovak koruna died a second death in 2009 at the euro. The German Democratic Republic went the other way, retiring the Mark der DDR in July 1990 and taking the Deutsche Mark in its place.

Yugoslavia is the reason this list has four dinar rows. The unit was reformed in January 1990, reformed again in November 1995 after the hyperinflation that produced the 500 billion dinara note, renamed in July 2003 when the federation became Serbia and Montenegro, and retired in October 2006 when that union dissolved. Four codes, one country, sixteen years, all on our Yugoslavia banknotes hub and Yugoslavia hyperinflation.

This is not only twentieth-century history. South Sudan retired the Sudanese pound in September 2012, and Curaçao and Sint Maarten retired the Netherlands Antillean guilder in March 2025 when the Caribbean guilder replaced it (SIX, ISO 4217 Amendment 176). That guilder had outlived the country it was named after by fifteen years. The Rhodesian dollar sits on the register's boundary.

Which currencies did the euro replace?

Twenty-one national currencies have been retired by the euro so far. Twelve went at once on 1 January 2002, and nine more followed one country at a time: Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014, Lithuania in 2015, Croatia in 2023 and Bulgaria in 2026.

The 2002 group is the one most collectors already own a piece of: the Austrian schilling, Belgian franc, Deutsche Mark, Dutch guilder, Finnish markka, French franc, Greek drachma, Irish pound, Italian lira, Luxembourg franc, Portuguese escudo and Spanish peseta. Twelve currencies withdrawn on a single day left an enormous quantity in private hands, which is why they are the easiest dead currencies to find crisp. Our history of the euro banknotes covers the money that replaced them.

Croatia moved on 1 January 2023, with kuna and euro both usable for two weeks before the euro became sole legal tender on 15 January 2023 (European Central Bank, Croatia). Bulgaria followed on 1 January 2026, with one month of dual circulation before the euro took over on 1 February 2026 (European Central Bank, Bulgaria).

Which currencies did hyperinflation destroy?

Hyperinflation rarely kills a currency by itself. It forces a reform, and the reform kills the name. Brazil went through five currency names between 1986 and 1994, Argentina three, Peru three, Zaire two and Venezuela three, and each change retired an entire family of banknotes at a stroke.

Brazil holds the record: the cruzeiro retired in March 1986, the cruzado in February 1989, the new cruzado in March 1990, a second cruzeiro in March 1993 and the cruzeiro real in July 1994, when the real finally held. Five dead units in eight years means five complete note families. Argentina ran the same pattern more slowly, retiring the peso argentino in July 1985 and the austral in January 1992.

Africa's headline case is the zaire, retired in February 1994 for the new zaire, itself retired in June 1999 when the Congolese franc replaced it. The story sits on our Zaire banknotes page, and current stock in the store's Zaire section.

Zimbabwe appears twice. The third Zimbabwe dollar code was withdrawn in June 2009, after the crisis that produced the 100 trillion dollar note, and the fourth, ZWL, in September 2024. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe confirmed the replacement to the ISO Maintenance Agency, which recorded Zimbabwe Gold as effective from 25 June 2024 (SIX, ISO 4217 Amendment 177). See Zimbabwe hyperinflation and every hyperinflation ranked. Venezuela's two dead units, the bolívar retired in January 2008 and the bolívar fuerte in August 2018, are the cheapest way into the theme (Venezuela hyperinflation).

Can you still exchange a dead currency at a central bank?

Sometimes, and the answer splits sharply by country rather than by how long ago the currency died. Thirteen of the 21 pre-euro currencies can still be exchanged for euro at their national central bank, twelve of them with no deadline at all, while eight closed a window that has already passed.

The European Central Bank publishes the definitive table. Banknotes in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Slovenia carry no time limit, and the Dutch guilder runs until 1 January 2032. The shut windows are Italy on 6 December 2011, France on 17 February 2012, Finland on 29 February 2012, Greece on 1 March 2012, Cyprus on 31 December 2017, Malta on 31 January 2018, Spain on 30 June 2021 and Portugal on 28 February 2022 (European Central Bank). The Bundesbank is the most generous, stating that an unlimited amount of Deutsche Mark can generally be exchanged indefinitely and free of charge at any branch, or by post through Mainz (Deutsche Bundesbank).

Outside the euro area the pattern repeats. The Swiss National Bank recalled its eighth series as of 30 April 2021, and after an amendment to the Federal Act on Currency and Payment Instruments in force from 1 January 2020, recalled sixth and eighth series notes can be exchanged at the SNB for an unlimited period at full nominal value (Swiss National Bank). The Bank of England withdrew the paper 20 and 50 pound notes on 30 September 2022 and states there is no deadline to exchange old banknotes with the Bank (Bank of England). Canada removed legal tender status from the 1, 2, 25, 500 and 1,000 dollar notes on 1 January 2021 and still honors them at face value (Bank of Canada).

For most of the 39 non-euro currencies listed here there is no published exchange offer, usually because the issuing authority is gone. That is why those notes reach collectors.

What are banknotes from dead currencies worth?

Not much for most of them, and a great deal for a few. The price of a dead-currency note is set by grade, by the Pick catalog number, by whether the note is certified, and by how famous the collapse was. The currency being dead is the starting condition, not the value driver.

Every figure below is Planet Banknote retail as read on the store in September 2026, with catalog number and grade attached. Prices change with inventory.

Read the first three rows together. The same 1993 Yugoslavia 500 billion dinara note runs $149.00 raw in uncirculated condition, $199.00 in a PMG 66 EPQ holder and $449.00 at PCGS 68 PPQ. Two grade points on the certified ladder more than doubles the price of an identical note from an identical dead currency, which is why our banknote grading guide and the comparison of graded versus raw banknotes matter more than any list of which currencies died.

The last row carries the second lesson. The 1996 Zaire 100,000 nouveaux zaires, from a currency retired in June 1999, sits at $149.00 in a gem uncirculated holder. That is the normal band for a well-preserved note from a famous collapse. Dead currencies without a famous collapse behind them, most of the ex-Soviet transitional units included, are collected as complete sets rather than single pieces.

Two other drivers apply to every row. The highest denomination carries most of the demand, because it is the headline note of the collapse, and the catalog number is how you confirm the note in a listing is the one you think it is (Pick numbers).

Which dead currencies do collectors actually chase?

Four groups do most of the work: the Yugoslav dinar for its 500 billion headline note, the Zimbabwe dollar for the trillion denominations, the zaire for Mobutu-era denominations, and the pre-euro national currencies for the sheer pleasure of a complete, closed, finite set.

The Yugoslav dinar is the connoisseur's choice because the story and the paper line up: a federation that no longer exists, a hyperinflation inside living memory, a note reading 500,000,000,000, and enough surviving stock to own one in gem condition. Current listings sit in the store's Yugoslavia section, with the background on the Yugoslavia banknotes hub.

Pre-euro collecting is badly underrated. Twelve currencies ended on the same day in 2002, which makes a twelve-note set a closed project rather than an open-ended chase. Start with Germany, France and Austria, then work outward across the store's banknotes by country index. See also how to collect world banknotes and 21st-century demonetization events.

What is the difference between a dead currency and a redenominated one?

A dead currency loses its name. A redenominated currency keeps its name and loses zeros. Turkey struck six zeros off the lira in 2005 and still uses the lira, so the lira is not on this list. Brazil struck zeros off five times and changed the name every time, so Brazil appears five times.

The ISO historic table does not draw that line for you, which is why raw counts of retired codes mislead. Its 169 entries include fund codes that were never banknotes, territory duplicates such as the French franc listed separately for Guadeloupe, Martinique and Mayotte, the Russian rouble listed once per ex-Soviet state, and housekeeping after a spelling change.

Same-name redenominations belong in a different reference. The Polish złoty in 1995, the Romanian leu and Turkish lira in 2005 and the Belarusian ruble in 2016 all cut zeros without killing the unit. Our list of currency redenominations handles those, and what is demonetization sets out the four mechanisms governments use to withdraw money.

Planet Banknote is a family-owned dealership in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2021. Every note is sourced direct from mints, central banks, and authorized distributors, inspected through our Planet Banknote Verified process, and ships with a free Certificate of Authenticity. US orders ship free via USPS Priority, and every order includes a free bonus gift.