Hungary P117 500 Pengő 1945 VF+ Very Fine Plus—Dark Blue—Allegorical Woman

Issued on 15 May 1945 — one week after Germany’s surrender — by a provisional government trying to hold a shattered economy together. It had less than a year before the worst hyperinflation in recorded history made it worthless.

Banknote Characteristics

• Varieties: Standard issue (P-117) and error variation
  
• Color: Black print on underprint in shades of brown
• Front:
  • Allegorical (idealized) Hungarian woman
  • Ornamental security printing:
    • Dense guilloché linework
    • Lathework rosettes in corners
    • Arabesque scrollwork
    • Composite border of interlaced geometric and foliate motifs framing the denomination cartouche
• Back:
  • Denomination inscribed in Hungarian, German, Slovak, Romanian, Ruthenian (Ukrainian), and Serbo-Croatian in both alphabets (Latin and Cyrillic), arching either side of upper center
  • Scalloped central cartouche with “500” corner medallions
  • Guilloché mesh, pearl-dot borders, and symmetrical ribbon framework throughout
  • Series and serial number in red
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 177 × 86 mm (6.97 × 3.39 in)
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Hungarian National Bank)
• Issued: 15 May 1945
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-117; Adamo MBK2# P19
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Country: Hungary — Provisional Government (1944–1945)

About Hungary

• Capital: Budapest (city ~1.7 million; metro ~3.3 million)
• Population: ~9.7 million (UN 2023) — similar to North Carolina or Michigan
• Area: 93,028 km² (35,918 mi²) — similar to Indiana or Portugal
• GDP per capita at PPP: ~$43,000 USD (IMF 2024) — ranks ~45th out of 193 globally
• Main exports: Vehicles, machinery, electronics, pharmaceuticals
• Borders (current): Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia
• Official/spoken language: Hungarian (~100%) — a Uralic language unrelated to any of its neighbors
• Sovereignty:
  • Pannonia — Roman province (1st century AD–433); before Rome, home to Celtic and Illyrian tribes
  • Hunnic Empire (433–469) — Huns arrived from the Eurasian steppe (Central Asia) under Attila; empire collapsed after his death
  • Germanic and Avar kingdoms (469–895)
  • Magyar conquest (895) — Magyars from the Ural region, arrived under Árpád, displacing/absorbing Slavs/Avars
  • Kingdom of Hungary (1000–1526) — founded by Stephen I, ruling Transylvania, Croatia and Dalmatia, Slovakia, Transcarpathia, and Vojvodina
  • Battle of Mohács (1526) — Ottoman victory; Hungary split into: Ottoman-occupied central Hungary, semi-autonomous Transylvania, and Royal Hungary (most = today’s Slovakia) under the Habsburgs
  • Habsburg rule (1526–1867) — Ottomans expelled by 1699; Hungary subject to Vienna
  • Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy (1867–1918) — Hungary co-equal partner with Austria, ruling a vast multi-ethnic empire
  • Horthy Regency (1920–1944)
    • Treaty of Trianon (1920) — Hungary lost ~72% of its territory and ~64% of its population: Transylvania to Romania; Slovakia and Transcarpathia to Czechoslovakia; Vojvodina to Yugoslavia; Croatia-Slavonia and Dalmatia to Yugoslavia and Italy; Burgenland to Austria
  • Arrow Cross / German occupation (1944–1945)
  • Provisional Government (1944–1945)
  • “People’s Republic” (1949–1989) — communist dictatorship, Soviet satellite state; USSR crushed the 1956 uprising
  • Republic (1989–date)

Printed one week after the war ended

This note was issued on 15 May 1945 — seven days after V-E Day. Budapest had been under siege for 50 days earlier that year, one of the longest and most destructive urban battles of the Second World War. The city was in ruins. The government issuing this note was a Soviet-backed provisional authority scrambling to restore basic economic function. The 500 Pengő denomination — a significant sum just years earlier — was already losing its meaning.

The Pengő and the hyperinflation that ended it

The Pengő was introduced in 1927 as a stable, modern currency. By the time this note was issued in May 1945, the collapse had already begun. Within a year, Hungary experienced the worst hyperinflation in recorded human history — prices doubling every 15 hours by July 1946. The largest denomination ever printed anywhere was the 100 quintillion Pengő — a 1 followed by 20 zeros. The Pengő was demonetized on 6 May 1946 and replaced by the Forint at a rate of 400,000 quadrillion to one.

Own this note from the first days of the peace

Issued in the rubble of war, demonetized within a year. This 500 Pengő is a document of a country trying to function while everything around it was collapsing.

The war ended. The currency didn’t survive it.