20 Pengő Russian Occupation

Issued by the Soviet military command as occupation currency following the Red Army's push into Hungary in late 1944, this note was part of a series intended to supplant existing Hungarian pengő in circulation without formally dismantling the existing monetary system — a temporary parallel currency that the local population was obligated to accept. The series was printed in the Soviet Union, not in Hungary, though the text is entirely in Hungarian.

The print run of over twelve million makes this one of the more common denominations in the series, yet survivor rates are uneven — much of the issue circulated hard in a country at war and then under occupation, leaving many examples in poor condition.