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1 000 000 B.‑Pengő
| Issuer | Magyar Nemzeti Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1946 |
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| Reference(s) | P#134 |
| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in dark brown intaglio over a pale pink guilloche underprint, with a central vignette to the right carrying an engraved portrait of Lajos Kossuth set within a decorative frame. The bold letterpress legend "EGYMILLIÓ B.-PENGŐ" occupies the upper centre, with the issuance date "BUDAPEST, 1946 ÉVI JÚNIUS HÓ 3.-ÁN" and the bank title "MAGYAR NEMZETI BANK" inscribed beneath. Three facsimile signatures appear at lower centre, each identified by official title: FŐTANÁCSOS, ELNÖK, and VEZÉRIGAZGATÓ. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by a full-width dark brown intaglio vignette rendered after Géza Mészöly's painting "At the Shore of Lake Balaton", with tall trees in the foreground and figures alongside boats at the water's edge. An ornate vertical panel to the left incorporates the Hungarian coat of arms, while a corresponding panel to the right carries the inscription "EGY MILLIÓ". Repeating denomination text runs along both the upper and lower margins of the composition. |
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| Comments |
By the time this note entered circulation in mid-1946, Hungary's hyperinflation had already exceeded anything recorded in monetary history. The pengő was collapsing so rapidly that the National Bank printed denominations in the billions and trillions within weeks of this million-pengő issue — the B.-pengő unit itself, shorthand for billió-pengő (one trillion pengő), was introduced precisely because the existing numerical vocabulary had become unworkable for everyday transactions.
Helbing Ferenc and Géza Mészöly were both established figures in Hungarian graphic arts, but the quality of their work here was largely irrelevant — notes of this series circulated for days, not months, before losing all practical value.