100 Pengő Russian Occupation

Issued by Soviet occupation authorities following the Red Army's advance into Hungary in late 1944, this note was part of a parallel currency system imposed before the National Bank of Hungary had been reconstituted under Soviet oversight. The series — denominations running from 1 to 1000 Pengő — was printed in the USSR and introduced alongside still-circulating prewar Hungarian issues, creating a chaotic dual-currency situation on the ground.

The occupation series is sometimes called "Red Army money" in Hungarian collector literature. With over twelve million printed, the 100 Pengő was the workhorse denomination, yet the entire series had a short effective life before Hungary's catastrophic postwar hyperinflation — the worst recorded in history — rendered all Pengő-denominated paper functionally worthless by mid-1946.