Last updated: September 2026

What is the largest banknote in the world by size?

The largest banknote in the world by physical size is the Malaysian RM600 commemorative note, recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest legal banknote at 814 square centimeters. Guinness records the achievement to Bank Negara Malaysia on 29 December 2017 and gives the note's dimensions as 22 centimeters by 37 centimeters.

That is a useful place to start because "largest" splits into two different questions that get mixed together constantly. One is about paper. The other is about zeros. A note can carry a face value with twenty digits and still slip into a pocket, and a note the size of a placemat can be worth a modest sum at the counter. This page answers the paper question. The face-value question has its own reference: the highest denomination banknote ever printed.

Two more distinctions matter before the table. First, records track notes issued as legal tender by a monetary authority, which excludes promotional sheets, uncut collector sheets and novelty printings. Second, museum catalogs measure the actual sheet of paper in front of them, while records bodies sometimes quote a design or printed area. Those two methods can differ by a centimeter on the same note, which is exactly what happens with the oldest entry on this list.

Every record-size banknote, ranked in millimeters

Ranked by paper area, the largest issued banknotes on record are Malaysia's RM600 of 2017, the Philippine 100,000 piso of 1998 and the Ming dynasty 1 guan of 1375, in that order. Below them sit the great commemorative issues and the pre-1929 United States notes collectors call horse blankets. Every row below carries a dimension read from a central bank, a museum catalog or Guinness World Records.

All nine rows carry a dimension published by the source named in the row. Where a source gives a single figure pair without naming an axis, the note is shown in the orientation its design is printed in: the Bank of Thailand lists its 2000 commemorative as 126 x 205 mm, and Guinness lists the Malaysian note as 22 cm x 37 cm. The last two rows are modern circulating notes, included so the record sizes have something familiar to sit next to.

How big was the Ming dynasty 1 guan note?

The Ming 1 guan note measures between roughly 321 and 341 millimeters tall and between 207 and 222 millimeters wide, depending on which surviving specimen is measured. There is no single correct figure. Each note was cut by hand from a printed sheet of mulberry-bark paper (Smithsonian NNC), and six centuries of trimming, mounting and wear have left the survivors at slightly different sizes.

The note itself is a remarkable object. Issued under the Hongwu emperor by the Board of Revenue, it carries a six-character heading across the top, a border of dragons, and an illustration of a thousand cash coins strung in ten groups of a hundred, which is what one guan represented (British Museum). The British Museum keeps CIB,EA.260 on public display in Room 68, the money gallery. If Chinese paper money interests you, our China banknotes hub covers the currency's later history, and Planet Banknote stocks Chinese issues in its China banknotes collection.

Why does Malaysia hold the record?

Bank Negara Malaysia set the record on 29 December 2017 with an RM600 commemorative note issued for the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Federation of Malaya Independence Agreement of 1957. Guinness World Records measured it at 814 square centimeters, from dimensions of 22 by 37 centimeters, and the note carries all 15 leaders of Malaysia across its first 60 years of independence (Guinness World Records).

What makes the record meaningful is the phrase "legal banknote". This was not a souvenir print run. It was issued by the central bank as currency, which is the bar every entry on this list has to clear. That also explains why the record moves so rarely: a central bank has to decide that a single anniversary is worth abandoning every practical constraint of cash handling, from vault stacking to counting machines to the width of a cash drawer.

What was the Philippine 100,000 piso note?

The Philippine 100,000 piso note of 1998 measured 356 by 216 millimeters and held the world size record until Malaysia took it in 2017. It was issued to commemorate the centennial of Philippine independence, and at 14 inches by 8.5 inches it has exactly the footprint of a sheet of US legal paper (Guinness World Records).

It is worth pausing on how far outside normal that is. A modern circulating note sits between roughly 120 and 170 millimeters on its long side. The Philippine centennial note is more than twice that, and the Malaysian note more than three times the long side of a 5 euro bill. Notes at this scale are produced in tiny numbers, sold to collectors in presentation folders, and almost never handled loose, which is why surviving examples are usually crisp.

How big are the banknotes in circulation today?

Circulating notes today cluster tightly between about 120 and 170 millimeters long. The European Central Bank publishes exact figures for every euro denomination: the first-series 5 euro note issued on 1 January 2002 measures 120 by 62 millimeters, and the Europa series 100 euro note issued on 28 May 2019 measures 147 by 77 millimeters (European Central Bank).

Notes used to be much bigger. The United States printed what collectors call large-size notes until 1928, and a British Museum specimen of an 1886 one dollar silver certificate measures 189 by 77 millimeters (British Museum), about a third longer than today's US note. The shrink was deliberate: smaller notes use less paper, print more to a sheet and wear better in pockets. For a denomination-by-denomination comparison across countries, see our banknote sizes chart, and for the opposite extreme, the smallest banknotes ever issued.

What is the biggest banknote in Vietnam?

Vietnam's biggest banknote is the 500,000 dong, the country's highest circulating denomination, introduced in 2003 on a polymer substrate with Ho Chi Minh on the front and his birthplace at Kim Lien on the back. It is "biggest" by face value, not by paper: it is a normal-sized polymer note, in line with the rest of the six-note series.

This is the clearest everyday example of the split this page opened with. Searchers asking for the biggest note in Vietnam almost always mean the largest number, and the answer is the 500,000 dong. Our Vietnam banknotes hub covers the full polymer series denomination by denomination, and Planet Banknote lists current stock in its Vietnam banknotes collection.

Does a bigger note mean a bigger denomination?

No. Size and face value are unrelated. The highest-denomination banknote ever issued was Hungary's 100 quintillion pengo note, printed on 3 June 1946 and withdrawn on 31 July of the same year (Guinness World Records), and it was an ordinary-sized piece of paper. The size record belongs to a note whose face value is RM600.

If anything, the correlation runs the other way. Hyperinflation notes tend to be printed fast, cheaply and small, because the issuing bank is racing the price level and paper is scarce. Ceremonial notes are printed slowly, expensively and large, because the point is the object rather than the transaction. The full ranking by face value sits on our highest denomination banknote page, and every hyperinflation ranked puts the crisis currencies side by side.

One practical consequence for collectors: oversized notes need oversized storage. Standard currency sleeves stop around 200 millimeters, so anything on the top half of this table needs a large-format sleeve or a rigid top loader sized for it, stored flat rather than upright. Our guide to storing banknotes covers materials and handling, and the banknote grading guide explains how third-party holders handle non-standard formats.

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.