Hungary P121a 100000 Pengő 1945 VF+ Very Fine Plus—Brown Version

By October 1945, the denomination had jumped tenfold from July. The portrait is still there — but the ornament is tightening, the geometry hardening, the color draining. The collapse was accelerating faster than the engravers could keep up.

Banknote Characteristics

• Varieties:
  • P-121a — without adhesive stamp (this note)
  • P-121b — with red adhesive stamp (~0.7% of known examples)
• Color: Muted green ground with brown intaglio; blue secondary print layer
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 177 × 80 mm (6.97 × 3.15 in)
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Hungarian National Bank)
• Issued: 23 October 1945
• Signatures: Zsigmond Thaly (Főtanácsos), Imre Oltványi & Lajos Faragó (Vezérigazgató)
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-121
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Country: Hungary — Provisional Government (1944–1946)

Front (Obverse)

The front still carries a portrait and a full ornamental system — but something has shifted. The scrollwork is more angular, the geometry tighter, the color flatter. This is the same design tradition as the July series, but under pressure. You can feel the production urgency in the composition.

• Portrait medallion (right): Female figure in traditional attire with braided hair, set in an angular, almost shield-like oval frame — less soft than earlier issues; background is a denser, darker guilloché field, increasing contrast
• Central denomination cartouche: Large oval panel bearing SZÁZEZER PENGŐ in bold serif
  • Inner field: fine guilloché lattice, tighter and more geometric than earlier issues
  • Outer frame: thick baroque scrolls with heavier, more angular acanthus leaf forms
• Top denomination panel: “100000” in bold serif numerals, embedded in a continuous border band at top
• Bottom denomination panel: “100000” nested within a scroll frame, visually anchoring the composition at the base
• Issuing authority block: Budapest, 1945. évi október hó 23-án; MAGYAR NEMZETI BANK centered and prominent; layout more compact than earlier notes
• Signature panel: Two engraved signatures (Főtanácsos and Vezérigazgató), slightly compressed, integrated tightly under the main inscription
• Anti-counterfeiting text: A bankjegyhamisítást a törvény bünteti (“Counterfeiting banknotes is punishable by law”), contained in a straight horizontal band rather than a curved ribbon — a shift toward more rigid compositional geometry
• Flanking ornamental panels: Cross-hatched diamond grid motifs — more geometric and less floral than earlier denominations; a transitional design language moving from organic to structured
• Corner ornaments: Stylized floral rosettes within rectangular corner frames; border system more rigid with repeated linear motifs; reduced negative space throughout

Back (Reverse)

The reverse makes a significant departure: the portrait is gone, replaced by the coat of arms as the central visual anchor. The ornamental system is more architectural than baroque — almost altar-like in its axial symmetry. Blue ink appears for the first time as a secondary print layer.

• Central coat of arms: The Hungarian shield — Árpád stripes and double cross under crown — framed by highly stylized vegetal forms rising symmetrically in an architecture-like, almost façade structure
• Central denomination panel: “100000” positioned below the coat of arms, framed by stepped geometric borders rather than flowing scrolls
• Multilingual denomination inscriptions: Denomination in six languages — a quiet record of the multi-ethnic world Hungary once ruled
  • Left column: Ruthenian (Rusyn) — СТО ТИСЯЧ ПЕНҐЕ; Romanian — UNA SUTĂ MII PENGHEI; Serbian (Cyrillic) — СТО ХИЉАДА ПЕНГОВА
  • Right column: Slovak — STOTISÍC PENGŐ; Serbian (Latin) — STO HILJADA PENGOVA; German — HUNDERTTAUSEND PENGŐ
• Serial numbers: Printed in blue (shift from the red of earlier notes) — prefix + number at left, full serial at right; cleaner, more modern typographic feel
• Flanking vignette motifs (blue): Stylized birds perched on branches holding floral elements — simplified, almost folkloric line style; likely a secondary security print layer
• Side border panels: Vertical bands with repeated geometric and floral units — more textile-like, less baroque

Design Summary

The 100,000 Pengő sits at a turning point in the series. It still has a portrait, still has guilloché, still has the full ornamental vocabulary — but the aesthetic tone has shifted from ornamental elegance to functional density. The structure is tightening as the value dissolves.

• Style: Late historicist engraving under production pressure — transitional between baroque and utilitarian
• Security approach: High-density guilloché; geometric grid panels; blue secondary print layer (birds, serials) as a new contrasting security element. Versus earlier series:
  • Scrollwork more angular, less flowing; geometric grids replace floral arabesques
  • Color simplified: muted green ground replaces the yellow→orange→green gradient of the 10,000
  • Reverse drops portrait entirely in favor of coat of arms; six-language block retained but restructured into two columns
  • Serial numbers shift from red to blue; anti-counterfeiting ribbon straightens from curved to horizontal
• Visual hierarchy: Denomination dominates — coat of arms anchors the reverse — ornament compresses around both

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 — with Pozsony (Bratislava) serving as the capital and coronation city
  • Habsburg rule (1526–1867) — Ottomans expelled by 1699; Pozsony remained the capital until 1848, when Budapest took over; Hungary subject to Vienna throughout
  • 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 (1944–1946)
  • “People’s Republic” (1949–1989) — communist dictatorship, Soviet satellite state; USSR crushed the 1956 uprising
  • Republic (1989–present) — member of NATO (1999–present) and the European Union (2004–present)

The Pengő and the hyperinflation that ended it

The Pengő was introduced in 1927 as a stable, modern currency. By October 1945, when this note was issued, 100,000 of them bought what a handful once did. Within months, Hungary experienced the worst hyperinflation in recorded human history — prices doubling every 15 hours by July 1946. Denominations climbed from thousands to millions to billions, eventually requiring entirely new naming conventions: the milpengő (million Pengő) and the b.-pengő (billion Pengő). The largest denomination ever printed was the 100 quintillion Pengő. The Pengő was demonetized on 6 May 1946 and replaced by the Forint at a rate of 400,000 quadrillion to one.

A Posthumous Ode to the Pengő, by World Money Store

(Best read aloud in the anapestic meter of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore — ‘’Twas the night before Christmas’’)

The printing press for the Hungarian pengő,
Went crazy, but why? Had it learned the flamenco?
No! Government, weak, had to pay for its spending,
So prices went higher; it was never ending.

More pengős in money supply caused such trouble,
That merchants were constantly marking tags double;
The workers got salaries paid in the morning,
And spent them by noontime, since prices were soaring.

A note marked ten thousand for onions and bread,
Then one hundred thousand, then millions it said.
Ten milpengő meant it was valued ten million,
A b-pengő meant it’s already a trillion.

The last of them seen said one hundred quintillion,
But one they held back was a stunning sextillion!
They had to replace the poor pengő with forint,
To close this book’s chapter: “Inflation Abhorrent”

Own this note from the middle of the collapse

The 100,000 Pengő was unimaginable in peacetime. By October 1945, it was already becoming small change. It is a document of a currency in freefall — the ornament still present, but hardening; the structure tightening as the value dissolves.

The woman is still on this note. But she doesn’t look serene anymore.