20 000 Karbovantsiv

Ukraine's post-Soviet monetary situation was genuinely chaotic. The karbovanets — technically a coupon currency introduced as a transitional measure after independence — suffered hyperinflation so severe that by 1995 the official rate had collapsed past 150,000 karbovantsiv to the US dollar. This 20,000 denomination, unthinkable a few years earlier, was a direct product of that spiral.

The entire karbovanets series was retired in September 1996 when the hryvnia was introduced at a conversion rate of 100,000 karbovantsiv to 1 hryvnia, rendering these notes obsolete overnight.