500 Pengő

Hungary's postwar hyperinflation — the worst ever recorded — began building through 1945, and this note was already obsolescent almost from the moment of issue. The pengő collapsed so rapidly that denominations issued within months of this one were measured in billions and trillions. A print run of over twelve million was not unusual for the period; volume was the only mechanism available to an economy where money was losing value faster than it could be physically distributed.

By August 1946, the forint replaced the pengő at a rate of 400,000 quadrillion pengő to one forint — a ratio that required a decimal adjustment with no real precedent in monetary history.