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100 000 000 Milpengő
| Issuer | Magyar Nemzeti Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1946 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | SZÁZMILLIÓ MILPENGŐ BUDAPEST, 1946. ÉVI JÚNIUS HÓ 3-ÁN MAGYAR NEMZETI BANK FŐTANÁCSOS ELNÖK VEZÉRIGAZGATÓ A BANKJEGYHAMISÍTÁST A TÖRVÉNY BÜNTETI (Translation: One Hundred Million Milpengő / Budapest, 3 June 1946 / Hungarian National Bank / Chief Counsellor / President / Director General / Counterfeiting banknotes is punishable by law) |
| Reverse description | Detailed intaglio vignette of the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest as seen from across the River Danube, rendered with fine line engraving against a clouded sky. Decorative side panels carry stylised Hungarian folk-art motifs in dark green. The denomination is repeated in the top and bottom border panels as well as in the four corner cartouches. |
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| Comments |
The 100,000,000 milpengő denomination requires some unpacking. By mid-1946, Hungary's postwar hyperinflation had become the worst ever recorded in history — peak monthly inflation reached 41.9 quadrillion percent in July 1946. The milpengő (one million pengő) and later the b.-pengő (one billion pengő) were stopgap accounting units introduced simply to keep the number of zeros on banknotes from becoming completely unmanageable.
This note was rendered obsolete almost immediately upon issue. The forint reform of 1 August 1946 replaced the entire pengő system at a conversion rate so extreme — 400 octillion pengő to one forint — that the figure has no practical analogy. Helbing and Horváth's engraving work was competent given the circumstances, though the printing infrastructure in Budapest was itself under severe strain throughout the series.