page_title: Hungarian pengő
section_title: Paper money
hierarchical_section_title: Hungarian pengő / Paper money
caption_attribution_description: 10 Hungarian pengő (1929) - obverse
context_page_description: The pengő was the currency of Hungary between 1 January 1927, when it replaced the korona, and 31 July 1946, when it was replaced by the forint. The pengő was subdivided into 100 fillér. Although the introduction of the pengő was part of a post-World War I stabilisation program, the currency survived for only 20 years and experienced the most serious case of hyperinflation ever recorded.
context_section_description: The Hungarian National Bank issued the first series of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 pengő banknotes in the last days of 1926. These were offset prints on watermarked paper (except for the 5 pengő note). The banknotes featured the outstanding people of Hungarian history on the obverse and either different sites of Budapest or paintings on the reverse: the banknotes also served educational purposes.
  A new series of banknotes had to be printed soon to meet higher security standards. The engravings were executed and designed by Endre Horváth, Hungarian graphic artist. New 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pengő notes were printed and even a 1000 pengő banknote was added to this series - however, the latter had such a high value that a big proportion of the people hardly ever saw any. This new series had almost the same topic as the previous. On the other hand, the 5 pengő notes were soon replaced with silver coins.
  After the Vienna Award, Hungary had to supply its recovered territories with money. Since increasing the amount of silver coins would have been too expensive, 1 and 5 pengő notes were issued in 1941 and 1938, respectively. These notes were of simple design and poor quality. Meanwhile, a series of new banknotes including 2, 5, 10 and 20 pengő denominations was issued. The design represented ornaments based on Hungarian folk art and people.
  At the end of the Second World War, the Szálasi government and the occupying Soviet army issued provisional notes in the territories under their power without any cover.
  In 1945 and 1946, hyperinflation caused the issuance of notes up to 100 million b.-pengő (100 quintillion or 10²⁰ pengő). During the hyperinflation, note designs were reused, changing the colour and replacing the word pengő with first milpengő, then b.-pengő, to generate higher denominations. The largest denomination produced was 100 million b.-pengő (100 quintillion or 10²⁰ pengő). The note was initially worth about US$0.20. Notes of one milliard b.-pengő (one sextillion or 10²¹ pengő) were printed but never issued.
  The introduction of adópengő was an attempt to limit inflation. It slowed inflation somewhat, but did not stop the depreciation of the currency. Bonds were issued by the Ministry of Finance in denominations between 10000 and 100000000 adópengő. These simple design notes on low-quality paper became legal currency in the last months of the hyperinflation, almost completely replacing the pengő.
  The enormous amount of paper consumed during the production of the inflation pengő notes caused a shortage of good quality security paper; this hindered the production of forint banknotes.
caption: 10 pengő, 1929
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