Milpengő vs B.-Pengő: How to Read a Hungarian Hyperinflation Note
One milpengő equalled a million pengő. One b.-pengő equalled a million milpengő, or a trillion pengő. Get those two multipliers wrong and a Hungarian note's value comes out a trillion times short. This is the arithmetic behind the largest denominations in monetary history, worked through denomination by denomination.
Last updated: July 2026
A Hungarian hyperinflation note's value is the printed number multiplied by the unit named beside it: pengő means one, milpengő means one million pengő, and b.-pengő means one million million pengő (1012). Three notes can all read "100,000,000" on the face and be worth 108, 1014 and 1020 pengő respectively. Hungary chose named multipliers instead of printing twenty consecutive zeros, which kept the notes legible and made them permanently confusing to anyone reading them eighty years later. This page removes the confusion.
The three units, side by side
Hungary used three units on its banknotes during the 1945 to 1946 collapse: the base pengő, the milpengő at 106 pengő, and the b.-pengő at 1012 pengő. Each was introduced when the previous one stopped fitting on the note.
| Unit | Full name | Equals | In pengő | Notes issued |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pengő | Pengő | The base unit | 1 | 1927 to May 1946 |
| Milpengő | Milpengő | One million pengő | 106 | 27 May to 27 June 1946 |
| B.-pengő | Bilpengő | One million milpengő | 1012 | 1 to 11 July 1946 |
The progression is worth noticing on its own. The pengő served for nineteen years. The milpengő served for thirty-one days. The b.-pengő served for eleven. Each unit bought less time than the one before it, which is the shape of a hyperinflation expressed in printing decisions rather than in price indices.
Why b.-pengő means a trillion, not a billion
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 short-scale billion of 109. Reading it as 109 understates every b.-pengő note by a factor of one thousand.
This is the single most common error in English-language descriptions of the series, and it propagates easily because both readings produce a plausible-looking number. A 100,000 b.-pengő note is either 1017 pengő (correct) or 1014 pengő (the short-scale misreading), and 1014 is itself a perfectly believable hyperinflation figure, so nothing about the wrong answer looks wrong. The check is straightforward: if a source gives the highest issued Hungarian note as anything other than 1020 pengő, it has applied the short scale somewhere.
The quick test. The 100,000,000 b.-pengő note of 11 July 1946 is the highest denomination ever issued, at 1020 pengő. That figure comes from 108 multiplied by 1012. If your arithmetic gives 1017, you have used the short-scale billion.
The same printed number, three different values
Hungary issued notes reading 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 10,000,000, 100,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 in more than one unit, so the printed figure alone never identifies a note's value.
| Printed figure | As pengő | As milpengő | As b.-pengő |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | 104 | 1010 27 May 1946 | 1016 P-132 |
| 100,000 | 105 P-121a | 1011 3 June 1946 | 1017 P-133 |
| 1,000,000 | 106 | 1012 P-128 | 1018 P-134 |
| 10,000,000 | 107 | 1013 P-129 | 1019 P-135 |
| 100,000,000 | 108 P-124 | 1014 P-130 | 1020 P-136 |
| 1,000,000,000 | 109 13 May 1946 | 1015 P-131 | 1021 P-137 |
Read the bottom row across and the whole series is in one line. The same nine-digit figure, 1,000,000,000, appears on three different Hungarian notes worth 109, 1015 and 1021 pengő. The last of those is the highest face value ever printed on a government banknote, and it was never released into circulation.
Note also the middle column at 100,000,000 milpengő: that note (P-130) represents 1014 pengő, which is numerically the same as Zimbabwe's famous 100 trillion dollar note. Two of the most extreme banknotes ever issued land on exactly the same power of ten by completely different routes. The comparison is drawn out in the highest denomination banknote ever printed.
Identifying which unit a note in front of you uses
The unit is printed on the note in Hungarian, next to or beneath the numeral. Look for "pengő", "milpengő", or the abbreviated "b.-pengő", and read the Hungarian number word if the numeral is unclear.
Hungarian number words appear on many of these notes and are a reliable cross-check once you recognise them. The ones that recur across the series are:
| Hungarian | Number |
|---|---|
| Tízezer | Ten thousand |
| Ötvenezer | Fifty thousand |
| Egyszázezer / Százezer | One hundred thousand |
| Ötszázezer | Five hundred thousand |
| Egymillió | One million |
| Tízmillió | Ten million |
| Százmillió | One hundred million |
| Egymilliárd | One thousand million (milliard) |
"Milliárd" is worth flagging separately, because it is the source of a second, smaller confusion. In Hungarian a milliárd is 109, a thousand million, which is what English speakers call a billion. That is a different word from the "bil" in bilpengő, which carries the long-scale 1012. The 1 milliárd b.-pengő note therefore means 109 b.-pengő, and since each b.-pengő is 1012 pengő, the note comes to 1021 pengő. Both multipliers, in the right order, are what produce the record.
Where the adópengő fits
The adópengő does not belong on this scale at all. It was a separate currency issued by the Ministry of Finance whose rate against the pengő was recalculated daily, so it has no fixed multiplier.
Treating the adópengő as a fourth rung on the pengő ladder is a common error and it produces figures that cannot be reconciled. One adópengő equalled one pengő on 1 January 1946 and roughly 2 × 1021 pengő on 31 July 1946. Any fixed pengő equivalent assigned to an adópengő denomination is quoting a single day's rate, and different sources quote different days, which is why published equivalents for the same adópengő note vary by orders of magnitude. The adópengő guide covers the instrument on its own terms.
Frequently asked questions
What does milpengő mean?
Milpengő means one million pengő. Hungary introduced the unit on 27 May 1946 so that a single banknote could represent millions of pengő without printing twelve digits across its face. Six milpengő denominations were issued between 27 May and 27 June 1946, from 10,000 milpengő (1010 pengő) to 1,000,000,000 milpengő (1015 pengő).
What does b.-pengő mean?
B.-pengő is short for bilpengő and equals one million milpengő, that is 1012 pengő. It uses the European long scale in which a billion means a million million rather than the American 109. Six b.-pengő denominations were issued between 1 and 11 July 1946, and the last of them, 100,000,000 b.-pengő, is the highest denomination banknote ever put into circulation.
How do I work out what a Hungarian pengő note is worth in pengő?
Multiply the printed number by the unit. If the note says pengő, the printed number is the value. If it says milpengő, multiply by 106. If it says b.-pengő, multiply by 1012. So 100,000 b.-pengő is 105 × 1012 = 1017 pengő. Adópengő notes are the exception and cannot be converted this way, because their rate was reset daily.
Is a b.-pengő a billion pengő?
Only if you use the European long scale, where a billion is a million million (1012). In American usage a billion is 109, and reading b.-pengő that way understates every note in the series by a factor of one thousand. The reliable check is that the highest issued Hungarian note works out to 1020 pengő; if your arithmetic gives 1017, the short scale has crept in.
Which Hungarian note equals the Zimbabwe 100 trillion note?
The 100,000,000 milpengő note (P-130), issued 24 June 1946, represents 1014 pengő, the same power of ten as Zimbabwe's 100 trillion dollar note (P-91). They are numerically equivalent in their own base currencies and make a natural pair in a collection, though Zimbabwe's prints all fourteen zeros while Hungary's prints eight.
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See every denomination with its issue date and catalog number in the complete pengő series catalog, browse current stock in the Hungary collection, or read the crisis in the Hungary hyperinflation guide.