Hungarian Pengő Hyperinflation Notes: Complete Series Catalog (1945-1946)
Every banknote Hungary issued during the 1945 to 1946 pengő collapse, in one table: the pengő, milpengő, b.-pengő and adópengő series, with catalog numbers, printed face values, pengő equivalents, and documented issue dates. The series ended on 11 July 1946 with the 100 million b.-pengő note, the highest face value ever put into circulation anywhere.
Last updated: July 2026
Hungary issued four distinct families of banknotes during its 1945 to 1946 hyperinflation: plain pengő notes, milpengő notes (one milpengő equalled one million pengő), b.-pengő notes (one b.-pengő equalled one million milpengő, or 1012 pengő), and the separately issued adópengő tax bills. Reading a pengő note therefore means reading two things at once, the printed number and the unit it is counted in. A note marked "100 million" can mean one hundred million pengő or one hundred quintillion pengő depending on which word follows it. The tables below give every documented denomination in each series, what it was actually worth in base pengő, and when it was issued.
How do you read a Hungarian pengő denomination?
Multiply the printed number by the unit named on the note. A pengő note counts single pengő, a milpengő note counts millions of pengő, and a b.-pengő note counts trillions of pengő (1012), so the same printed figure can differ by a factor of a trillion between series.
Hungary adopted these units for a practical reason. By mid-1946 the numbers involved had grown past what would physically fit on a banknote in legible type, and the Hungarian National Bank chose named multipliers over printing twenty consecutive zeros. The abbreviation "b.-pengő" is short for bilpengő, and it uses the European long scale in which a billion means a million million, 1012, not the American 109 (Hungarian pengő, Wikipedia, citing Linzmayer, The Banknote Book, 2019). Miss that distinction and every b.-pengő figure comes out a thousand times too small.
The milpengő vs b.-pengő explainer works through the arithmetic denomination by denomination if you want the long version. The catalog below assumes it.
Series 1: the pengő notes of 1945 to 1946
The first inflation issues carried plain pengő denominations and climbed from 100,000 pengő in December 1945 to 1,000,000,000 pengő in May 1946 before the Hungarian National Bank switched to the milpengő notation.
| Denomination as printed | Value in pengő | Issue date | Pick no. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 pengő | 102 | 9 May 1945 | |
| 500 pengő | 5 × 102 | 1 June 1945 | |
| 50 pengő | 5 × 101 | 5 June 1945 | |
| 1,000 pengő | 103 | 16 July 1945 | |
| 10,000 pengő | 104 | 17 October 1945 | |
| 100,000 pengő | 105 | 12 December 1945 | P-121a |
| 1,000,000 pengő (Egymillió) | 106 | 1945 issue | |
| 100,000,000 pengő (Százmillió) | 108 | 1946 issue | P-124 |
| 1,000,000,000 pengő | 109 | 13 May 1946 |
Blank catalog cells mean the Pick number is not independently documented in the sources listed at the foot of this page, not that no number exists. We would rather leave a cell empty than publish a catalog number we cannot stand behind. The same rule applies to every table here.
Series 2: the milpengő notes, May to June 1946
The milpengő series ran from 10,000 milpengő on 27 May 1946 to 1,000,000,000 milpengő on 27 June 1946, taking the effective denomination from 1010 to 1015 pengő in thirty-one days.
| Denomination as printed | Value in pengő | In words | Issue date | Pick no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 milpengő | 1010 | 10 billion pengő | 27 May 1946 | P-126 |
| 100,000 milpengő | 1011 | 100 billion pengő | 3 June 1946 | P-127 |
| 1,000,000 milpengő | 1012 | 1 trillion pengő | 12 June 1946 | P-128 |
| 10,000,000 milpengő | 1013 | 10 trillion pengő | 18 June 1946 | P-129 |
| 100,000,000 milpengő | 1014 | 100 trillion pengő | 24 June 1946 | P-130 |
| 1,000,000,000 milpengő | 1015 | 1 quadrillion pengő | 27 June 1946 | P-131 |
The 100,000,000 milpengő note (P-130) is the one collectors most often meet first, because its pengő equivalent, 100 trillion, is the same figure as Zimbabwe's famous 100 trillion dollar note. The two are a natural pair on a page or in a frame, and the comparison is worked through in the highest denomination banknote ever printed.
Series 3: the b.-pengő notes, July 1946
The b.-pengő series lasted eleven days. It opened on 1 July 1946 at 10,000 b.-pengő (1016 pengő) and closed on 11 July 1946 with the 100 million b.-pengő note (1020 pengő), the highest face value ever issued on any banknote.
| Denomination as printed | Value in pengő | In words | Issue date | Pick no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 b.-pengő | 1016 | 10 quadrillion pengő | 1 July 1946 | P-132 |
| 100,000 b.-pengő | 1017 | 100 quadrillion pengő | 2 July 1946 | P-133 |
| 1,000,000 b.-pengő | 1018 | 1 quintillion pengő | 4 July 1946 | P-134 |
| 10,000,000 b.-pengő | 1019 | 10 quintillion pengő | 8 July 1946 | P-135 |
| 100,000,000 b.-pengő | 1020 | 100 quintillion pengő | 11 July 1946 | P-136 |
| 1,000,000,000 b.-pengő | 1021 | 1 sextillion pengő | Printed, never released | P-137 |
Two notes at the bottom of that table hold the two versions of the world record, and the distinction between them matters. The 100 million b.-pengő (P-136) was issued by the Hungarian National Bank on 11 July 1946 and circulated, which makes it the highest face value ever put into circulation; Guinness World Records lists it as the highest-denomination banknote ever circulated. The 1 milliard b.-pengő (P-137) was printed but never released, which makes it the highest face value ever printed on a government banknote (Hungarian pengő, Wikipedia, citing Linzmayer, The Banknote Book, 2019). Surviving P-137 examples reached collectors rather than tills, and they remain the scarcest and most expensive note in the series.
Both notes have dedicated pages: the 100 quintillion pengő note covers P-136 piece by piece, and the highest denomination banknote ever printed ranks it against every other contender in history.
Two production details tell you how fast this was moving. The highest-denomination 1946 notes were produced by offset lithography rather than intaglio, and they carry no serial numbers at all, because inflation had outrun the capacity of Budapest's printing works (Magyar Nemzeti Bank Pénzmúzeum). A collector used to modern notes will notice both immediately: the surface is flat rather than raised, and the space where a serial number belongs is simply blank. The whole b.-pengő series was demonetized together on 31 July 1946, so every note in it had a working life measured in weeks. The 100 million b.-pengő circulated for roughly three.
Series 4: the adópengő tax bills
The adópengő was a separate parallel currency, issued by the Ministry of Finance rather than the Hungarian National Bank, and its value against the pengő was reset every day rather than fixed. Notes ran from 10,000 to 100,000,000 adópengő.
| Denomination | Printing date | Issue date | Pick no. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 adópengő | 28 May 1946 | 13 June 1946 | P-143 |
| 50,000 adópengő | 25 May 1946 | 30 May 1946 | |
| 100,000 adópengő | 28 May 1946 | 13 June 1946 | P-144 |
| 500,000 adópengő | 25 May 1946 | 30 May 1946 | P-139 |
| 1,000,000 adópengő (Egymillió) | 25 May 1946 | 30 May 1946 | P-140a |
| 10,000,000 adópengő (Tízmillió) | 18 July 1946 | July 1946 | P-141 |
| 100,000,000 adópengő (Százmillió) | 25 July 1946 | July 1946 | P-142 |
| 1,000,000,000 adópengő | Never printed | Never issued |
Because the adópengő was revalued daily, no single pengő equivalent is correct for an adópengő note across its life. One adópengő equalled one pengő on 1 January 1946 and roughly 2 × 1021 pengő on 31 July 1946. Descriptions that assign a fixed pengő figure to an adópengő denomination are quoting a rate from one particular day. The adópengő guide sets out the mechanism, the radio announcements that carried the daily rate, and why these notes read so differently from the rest of the series. All adópengő tax bills were withdrawn on 31 July 1946 and finally lapsed on 30 September 1946.
What do Hungarian pengő notes cost today?
Genuine pengő, milpengő, b.-pengő and adópengő notes remain among the most affordable record-setting banknotes in the hobby, with entry-level examples in the low hundreds of dollars and the scarce top denominations running into four figures.
The table below is Planet Banknote current retail on notes we have in stock as this page was updated in July 2026. Availability on this series rotates, and prices change with what we can source, so treat these as a dated snapshot rather than a fixed price list. Where a denomination is not shown, we are simply out of stock on it at the moment.
| Note | Pick no. | Grade | Planet Banknote retail (July 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100,000 pengő, 1945 | P-121a | UNC | $99 |
| 100,000 pengő, 1945 | P-121a | PMG 64 Choice UNC | $325 |
| 1,000,000 pengő, 1945 | UNC | $109 | |
| 1,000,000 milpengő | P-128 | VF | $99 |
| 1,000,000 milpengő | P-128 | UNC | $124 |
| 10,000,000 milpengő | P-129 | VF | $109 |
| 10,000,000 milpengő | P-129 | UNC | $169 |
| 100,000,000 milpengő | P-130 | AU | $119 |
| 10,000 b.-pengő | P-132 | UNC | $229 |
| 100,000 b.-pengő | P-133 | UNC | $229 |
| 100,000 b.-pengő | P-133 | PMG 64 CU | $319 |
| 1,000,000 b.-pengő | P-134 | PMG 63 | $179 |
| 1,000,000 b.-pengő | P-134 | PMG 65 EPQ | $229 |
| 1,000,000 b.-pengő | P-134 | UNC | $239 |
| 1,000,000 b.-pengő | P-134 | PMG 66 EPQ | $269 |
| 10,000,000 b.-pengő | P-135 | UNC | $389 |
| 10,000,000 b.-pengő | P-135 | PMG 64 CU | $612 |
| 100,000,000 b.-pengő (record note) | P-136 | PMG 66 EPQ | $1,145 |
| 1,000,000 adópengő | P-140a | XF | $107 |
Two patterns are worth reading out of that table. First, the price ladder tracks the denomination ladder closely: the higher up the series a note sits, the fewer survive and the more it costs, which is why the record-setting P-136 sits an order of magnitude above the common milpengő issues. Second, the spread between a raw note and a certified one is narrow on the mid-series issues and widens sharply at the top, so grading matters most exactly where the notes are scarcest. Our graded vs raw guide covers when the premium earns its keep, and the grading guide explains the 1 to 70 scale.
Sources and method
Issue dates and denomination structures on this page come from published references, and the price column comes from Planet Banknote's own retail listings on the date shown.
- Denominations, units and issue dates: the Wikipedia articles on the Hungarian pengő, the paper money of the Hungarian pengő, the Hungarian adópengő and the paper money of the Hungarian adópengő, which cite Owen Linzmayer, The Banknote Book (2019), Bomberger and Makinen (1983) on the Hungarian stabilization, and Paal (2000).
- Severity of the hyperinflation: the Hanke-Krus World Hyperinflation Table, published by the Cato Institute, which documents the July 1946 peak with prices roughly doubling about every 15 hours.
- Catalog numbers: Pick numbers shown are those documented on the individual notes Planet Banknote has handled and catalogued. Cells are left blank where we could not corroborate a number independently.
- Prices: Planet Banknote retail listings, July 2026. Prices and availability change.
If you find an error in this catalog, tell us at admin@planetbanknote.com and we will correct it and note the correction. This page is maintained as a reference, not as a sales sheet, and its usefulness depends on being right.
Frequently asked questions
What was the highest denomination Hungarian pengő note?
The 100 million b.-pengő note, issued by the Hungarian National Bank on 11 July 1946, was the highest denomination ever put into circulation. Because one b.-pengő equalled 1012 pengő, that note represented 1020 pengő, or 100 quintillion, a one followed by twenty zeros. A larger 1 milliard b.-pengő note worth 1021 pengő was printed but never released into circulation.
What does b.-pengő mean on a Hungarian banknote?
B.-pengő is short for bilpengő, and one b.-pengő equalled one million million pengő, that is 1012. It uses the European long scale, where a billion means 1012 rather than the American 109. So a note marked 100,000 b.-pengő represents 1017 pengő. The related milpengő unit equalled one million pengő.
How many pengő notes were issued during the hyperinflation?
Hungary issued four distinct families of notes between 1945 and 1946: plain pengő denominations running from 50 pengő up to 1,000,000,000 pengő, six milpengő denominations issued between 27 May and 27 June 1946, six b.-pengő denominations issued in the first eleven days of July 1946, and seven adópengő tax bill denominations issued by the Ministry of Finance. The complete tables are set out on this page.
What is a Hungarian pengő note worth today?
Genuine notes from the series start around $99 for common milpengő issues in circulated grade and run to $1,145 for a PMG 66 EPQ example of the record-setting 100 million b.-pengő, at Planet Banknote retail as of July 2026. The mid-series b.-pengő notes sit between $179 and $389 depending on grade. Prices and availability change with inventory.
Why do two pengő notes with the same printed number have different values?
Because the unit printed alongside the number differs. A note marked 100,000,000 pengő represents 108 pengő, a note marked 100,000,000 milpengő represents 1014 pengő, and a note marked 100,000,000 b.-pengő represents 1020 pengő. The printed figures are identical and the actual values differ by a factor of a trillion, which is the single most common source of confusion when reading this series.
Are Hungarian pengő notes a good place to start collecting hyperinflation currency?
They are, and for a specific reason: this is the only series where you can hold the actual world record. Hungary's 1946 collapse is the most extreme hyperinflation ever documented, with prices roughly doubling about every 15 hours at the peak (Hanke-Krus World Hyperinflation Table, Cato Institute), and the notes it produced carry the highest face values in monetary history. Common milpengő issues are affordable, plentiful, and survive in crisp condition, so the entry point is low even though the story is the biggest in the field.
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.
Ready to hold a piece of the series? Browse the Hungary banknotes collection, pair it with other collapses in a hyperinflation set, or read the crisis end to end in the Hungary hyperinflation guide and how the pengő became the forint.