10 000 Adópengő Tax note, 4th edition

The adópengő was Hungary's fiscal instrument of last resort — a tax-indexed parallel currency introduced in January 1946 to preserve state revenue collection while the regular pengő collapsed into the worst hyperinflation in recorded history. By the time notes like this 4th-edition 10,000 adópengő were circulating, the conversion ratio between the adópengő and the ordinary pengő was being revised daily by radio broadcast, with the gap widening at a rate that defies easy comprehension.

The Magyar Postatakarékpénztár issued these rather than the National Bank specifically because the postal savings infrastructure could distribute them rapidly through branch networks at a moment when normal banking had effectively broken down. The adópengő series was annulled on 1 August 1946 with the introduction of the forint, at which point all pengő-family instruments — including these — became worthless overnight.