Hungary P123 10000000 Pengő 1945 VF+ Very Fine Plus—Greens

Ten million Pengős, issued in November 1945 — bearing the face of the man who built modern Hungary, on a note already sliding toward absurdity. A beautifully composed document that’s quietly losing the argument it’s trying to make.

Banknote Characteristics

• Composition: Paper
• Color: Dark green and black; pale red underprint; red serial numbers
• Size: 180 × 85 mm (7.09 × 3.35 in)
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Hungarian National Bank)
• Issued: 16 November 1945
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-123
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Country: Hungary — Provisional Government (1944–1946)

Front (Obverse)

The obverse returns to a full monumental composition — portrait, heraldry, ornament — at a denomination that would have been unthinkable a year earlier. The design asserts authority and continuity. The number contradicts both.

• Portrait medallion (right): Bust of István Széchenyi facing left, framed by an angular cartouche with geometric corner devices — the statesman known as “the greatest Hungarian” (a legnagyobb magyar), architect of Hungary’s 19th-century modernization
• Left panel — coat of arms with supporters: The Hungarian coat of arms — Árpád stripes and double cross on triple hill, crowned — flanked by two winged allegorical female figures standing and facing inward, supporting the shield; base features an interlace knot motif (Celtic-style endless knot, symbol of continuity)
• Central text panel: TÍZMILLIÓ PENGŐ in large bold serif; date and issuing authority below; two engraved signatures with titles (Elnök, Főtanácsos, Vezérigazgató)
• Lower ornamental system: Dense scrollwork with stylized floral and star elements; guilloché rosettes embedded in background; anti-counterfeiting warning in horizontal band at bottom
• Border system: Continuous frame with repeating zigzag dentils, rosettes, and wave motifs; top border repeats denomination text continuously

Back (Reverse)

The reverse pivots from authority to aspiration — a dove in flight where the portrait would be, multilingual inscriptions recalling the old empire’s reach.

• Central vignette: Dove in flight with olive branch, facing right, wings fully extended — a classical symbol of peace and renewal, set against a background panel dated 1945
• Side panels: Vertical ornamental columns with interlace knots, crosses, and floral motifs in symmetrical textile-like patterning
• Lower denomination panel: Large 10,000,000 in Arabic numerals, flanked by star separators
• Multilingual denomination inscriptions: Denomination in six languages — a quiet record of the multi-ethnic world Hungary once ruled
  • Top band (left → right): Ruthenian (Rusyn) — ДЕСЯТЬ МИЛІОНІВ ПЕНҐЕ; Romanian — ZECE MILIOANE PENGHEI; Serbian (Cyrillic) — ДЕСЕТ МИЛИЈУН ПЕНГОВА
  • Bottom band (left → right): Slovak — DESAŤMILIÓNOV PENGŐ; Serbian (Latin) — DESETMILIONA PENGOVA; German — ZEHN MILLIONEN PENGŐ
• Border: Dense geometric and floral edging with continuous repeating denomination text

Design Summary

The 10,000,000 Pengő is the most ambitious note in the inflation series — monumental national imagery paired with a denomination already sliding toward absurdity.

• Style: Full historicist engraving — portrait, heraldry, allegorical figures, guilloché — the complete vocabulary of 19th-century security printing
• Security approach: High-density guilloché; pale red underprint; red serial numbers; continuous border denomination text
• Design logic: Obverse = authority and history (Széchenyi → reform and stability; coat of arms → continuity of state); Reverse = aspiration (dove → peace after war; multilingual inscriptions → memory of Greater Hungary)
• Visual hierarchy: Portrait and heraldry share the obverse as equals — denomination anchors both sides — ornament fills every remaining surface

About István Széchenyi

István Széchenyi (1791–1860) is considered “the greatest Hungarian” — a title given to him by his rival Lajos Kossuth. He promoted infrastructure (most notably the Chain Bridge in Budapest), economic reform and credit institutions, and the development of the Hungarian language in public life. Unlike Kossuth, he advocated gradual reform within the Habsburg system rather than revolution. His presence on a note from a moment of total economic collapse is the note’s central irony — the man who built modern Hungary, on a piece of paper that modern Hungary could no longer sustain.

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 November 1945, when this note was issued, ten million of them were an ordinary transaction. 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 deep inside the collapse

The 10,000,000 Pengő is the most beautifully composed note in the inflation series — and one of the most poignant. Széchenyi built the Chain Bridge. The government that printed his face on this note couldn’t build a stable currency.

The dove on the reverse is flying toward peace. The denomination is flying toward infinity.