Hungary 7 Pc Set—Hyperinflation—100-10000000 forint 1930–1945 VF+ Very Fine Plus

This Set Contains 7 Notes

• P-98 — 100 Pengő (1930) — King Matthias Corvinus / Hungarian Parliament — Horthy Regency
• P-111 — 100 Pengő (1945) — King Matthias Corvinus / Hungarian Parliament — Horthy Regency
• P-117 — 500 Pengő (1945) — Allegorical Woman — Provisional Government
• P-118b — 1,000 Pengő (1945) — Allegorical Woman / Red Adhesive Stamp — Provisional Government
• P-119b — 10,000 Pengő (1945) — Allegorical Woman / Brown-on-Green Adhesive Stamp — Provisional Government
• P-121a — 100,000 Pengő (1945) — Brown Version — Provisional Government
• P-123 — 10,000,000 Pengő (1945) — István Széchenyi / Green — Provisional Government

P-98 — 100 Pengő (1930) — King Matthias — Parliament

Issued in 1930, when the Pengő was still a credible currency and Hungary still believed in its own recovery. The note that opened the series — before the war, before the hyperinflation, before the zeros.

Banknote Characteristics

• Denomination in words: SZÁZ PENGŐ in Hungarian, German, Slovak, Romanian, Rusyn, and Serbo-Croatian in both alphabets (Latin and Cyrillic)
• Composition: Paper
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Hungarian National Bank)
• Issued: 1930
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-98
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Period: Horthy Regency (1920–1944)

Front (Obverse)

• Portrait (right): King Matthias Corvinus — Hungary’s greatest Renaissance monarch, reigned 1458–1490; framed in an engraved oval medallion
• Central vignette: The Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest — completed 1904, one of Europe’s largest parliament buildings
• Issuing authority: MAGYAR NEMZETI BANK in bold serif
• Denomination: SZÁZ PENGŐ (One Hundred Pengő)

Back (Reverse)

• Multilingual denomination inscriptions: Denomination in six languages — Hungarian, German, Slovak, Romanian, Rusyn, and Serbo-Croatian in both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets
• Ornamental system: Fine guilloché engraving throughout

About King Matthias Corvinus

Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490) was one of medieval Europe’s most powerful and cultured rulers — King of Hungary from 1458, later also ruling parts of Austria and Bohemia. He built the Corvina Library, one of Europe’s finest manuscript collections, second only to the Vatican at the time. He commanded the Black Army, one of Europe’s first professional standing forces. Celebrated in folklore as “Matthias the Just”, he is remembered across Central Europe as a wise king who disguised himself to walk among his people.

The Parliament on a note from before the fall

The Hungarian Parliament Building was completed in 1904 — the largest building in Hungary, one of the largest parliament buildings in the world. It was built to project permanence, grandeur, and the confidence of a great empire. By 1930, when this note was issued, the empire was gone, two-thirds of Hungary’s territory had been stripped away by Trianon, and the country was navigating the Great Depression. The Parliament still stood. The Pengő was still stable. This note is from that narrow window of relative calm.

Own this note from Hungary’s interwar recovery

The P-98 is the foundation of the Hungarian Pengő series — the note that set the visual standard before the war and the hyperinflation rewrote everything. Matthias Corvinus and the Parliament Building: the greatest king and the grandest building, on the most stable note Hungary would issue for the next two decades.

The Pengő lasted until 1946. This note outlasted the currency, the regime, and the empire that inspired it.

P-111 — 100 Pengő (1945) — King Matthias — Parliament

Issued under a regent who was neither king nor president, featuring a king who died 440 years before the note was printed — and a parliament building that was the largest in the world when it opened.

Banknote Characteristics

• Varieties: Single variety (P-111); arrow cross stamps are falsifications
• Color: Brown tones
• Front: Portrait of Matthias Corvinus (King of Hungary and Croatia, 1458–1490); engraved by Franke Rupert; designed by Álmos Jaschik
• Back: Hungarian Parliament Building, Budapest; denomination inscribed in Hungarian, German, Slovak, Romanian, Rusyn, and Serbo-Croatian in both alphabets (Latin and Cyrillic)
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 177 × 93 mm
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank
• Issued: 1945
• Signatures: Végh, Sándor Popovics, Béla Schober
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-111
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Period: Regency of Miklós Horthy (1920–1944)

A king who made Hungary the envy of Europe

Matthias Corvinus came to the throne at 15 and ruled for 32 years, turning Hungary into the most powerful state in Central Europe. He built the first standing professional army in European history — the Black Army — conquered Moravia, Silesia, and Austria, and briefly held Vienna. He was also a Renaissance patron who filled his court with Italian humanists, built one of the finest libraries in Europe (the Bibliotheca Corviniana), and corresponded with the leading scholars of his age. When he died in 1490, reportedly poisoned, his empire collapsed within years. The Ottomans arrived 36 years later.

He appears on this note not as a historical curiosity but as a political statement. The Horthy regime, ruling a Hungary stripped of two-thirds of its territory by the Treaty of Trianon, chose the king who had made Hungary great as the face of its currency. Nostalgia as monetary policy.

The parliament that was built for an empire that no longer existed

The Hungarian Parliament Building on the reverse was completed in 1904 — the largest parliament building in the world at the time, and still one of the largest. It was designed for a Hungary that was half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with a population of 20 million and ambitions to match. By the time this note was issued in 1945, Hungary had 8 million people and borders drawn by its enemies. The building remained. The empire did not.

The Pengő and the hyperinflation that ended it

The Pengő was introduced in 1927 as a stable, modern currency — and for its first decade it was. This 100 Pengő note, issued in 1945, was printed as the economy was already collapsing. By July 1946, prices were doubling every 15 hours. 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.

Matthias built an empire. The Pengő became worthless. The note survived both.

P-117 — 500 Pengő (1945) — 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; dense guilloché linework, lathework rosettes in corners, arabesque scrollwork, composite border of interlaced geometric and foliate motifs
• Back: Denomination inscribed in Hungarian, German, Slovak, Romanian, Rusyn, and Serbo-Croatian in both alphabets; 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
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank
• Issued: 15 May 1945
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-117
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Period: Provisional Government (1944–1945)

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 war ended. The currency didn’t survive it.

P-118b — 1,000 Pengő (1945) — Allegorical Woman — Red Stamp

Issued two months after the war ended, featuring an allegorical woman on a note that would be worthless within a year — and stamped by government order, forcing every holder to walk into a bank and pay three times its face value just to keep it legal.

Banknote Characteristics

• Varieties: P-118a (without red adhesive stamp); P-118b (with red adhesive stamp — this note; December 1945 capital levy; unstamped notes reduced to one-quarter face value)
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 185 × 90 mm
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank
• Issued: 15 July 1945
• Signatures: Zsigmond Thaly (Főtanácsos), Imre Oltványi & Lajos Faragó (Vezérigazgató)
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-118
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Period: Provisional Government (1944–1945)

Front (Obverse)

Dense black intaglio over a pink-tinted ground. Engraved by Franke Rupert, designed by Helbing Ferenc.

• Portrait medallion (right): Allegorical woman in historical Hungarian dress — rose in her hair, lace collar, embroidered bodice — set in an oval guilloché frame
• Coat of arms: Hungarian coat of arms — Árpád stripes and double cross on hills, crowned, wrapped in foliage and ribbon scrolls
• Central denomination cartouche: Large framed oval bearing EZER PENGŐ in bold serif; fine guilloché mesh inner border; baroque scrollwork with acanthus-leaf extensions
• Stamp (P-118b): Red rectangular adhesive stamp affixed over the portrait’s upper medallion; crowned MNB emblem on sunburst/rosette background; revalidates the note as legal tender

Back (Reverse)

• Central denomination panel: EZER PENGŐ in bold serif, surrounded by layered guilloché ovals and interlaced scrollwork
• Multilingual inscriptions: Hungarian, German, Slovak, Romanian, Rusyn, and Serbo-Croatian in both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets
• Serial numbers: Printed in red

The stamp that split this note into two versions

In December 1945, the provisional government attempted a one-off capital levy to slow inflation. Holders had to walk into a bank, hand over three times the note’s face value in cash, and receive a red adhesive stamp in return — proof that the note was still legal tender. Unstamped notes were immediately reduced to one-quarter of their nominal worth. It failed to stop the inflation.

The woman on the note looks serene. The economy was not.

P-119b — 10,000 Pengő (1945) — Allegorical Woman — Brown/Green Stamp

Issued the same day as the 1,000 Pengő — but ten times the denomination, and stamped by government order, forcing every holder to walk into a bank and pay three times its face value just to keep it legal.

Banknote Characteristics

• Varieties: P-119a (without adhesive stamp); P-119b (with brown/green adhesive stamp — this note); P-119c (with blue adhesive stamp)
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 168 × 82 mm
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank
• Issued: 15 July 1945
• Signatures: Zsigmond Thaly (Főtanácsos), Imre Oltványi & Lajos Faragó (Vezérigazgató)
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-119
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Period: Provisional Government (1944–1945)

Front (Obverse)

Yellow-to-orange-to-green horizontal wash underlies the entire surface, overlaid with dense black intaglio engraving. Engraved by Franke Rupert, designed by Helbing Ferenc.

• Portrait medallion (right): Female profile in classical Hungarian attire; oval guilloché frame with concentric engraved borders and bead-and-scroll detailing
• Coat of arms: Hungarian coat of arms — Árpád stripes and double cross on triple hill, crowned, surrounded by stylized vegetal wreath
• Central denomination cartouche: Large oval bearing TÍZEZER PENGŐ in bold serif; fine guilloché lattice inner field; dense baroque scrollwork with layered acanthus leaves
• Stamp (P-119b): Adhesive stamp with serrated edges affixed over the upper portrait medallion; crowned MNB emblem on starburst/rosette field; emergency revalidation — unstamped notes cut to one-quarter face value

Back (Reverse)

• Central denomination medallion: Oval with “10000” at center; TÍZEZER flanking on both sides; dense guilloché core with layered border rings
• Multilingual inscriptions: Hungarian, German, Slovak, Romanian, Rusyn, and Serbo-Croatian in both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets
• Serial numbers: Printed in red

The stamp that split this note into three versions

In December 1945, the provisional government attempted a one-off capital levy to slow inflation. Holders had to walk into a bank, hand over three times the note’s face value in cash, and receive an adhesive stamp in return. The 10,000 Pengő came in three stamp variants — none, brown/green, or blue — making it one of the more collectible entries in the inflation series. It failed to stop the inflation.

P-121a — 100,000 Pengő (1945) — 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 (brown — this note); P-121b (blue)
• Composition: Paper
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank
• Issued: 1945
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-121a
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Period: Provisional Government (1944–1945)

The Pengő and the hyperinflation that ended it

The Pengő was introduced in 1927 as a stable, modern currency. By the time this 100,000 Pengő note was issued, the collapse was well underway. 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.

P-123 — 10,000,000 Pengő (1945) — István Széchenyi — Green

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

• Varieties: Single variety — P-123
• Color: Green
• Front: Portrait of István Széchenyi — “the Greatest Hungarian,” founder of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, builder of the Chain Bridge
• Composition: Paper
• Issuing entity: Magyar Nemzeti Bank
• Issued: November 1945
• Demonetized: 6 May 1946
• References: P-123
• Currency: Pengő (1927–1946)
• Period: Provisional Government (1944–1945)

The man who built modern Hungary — on a note that was already worthless

István Széchenyi (1791–1860) is known as “the Greatest Hungarian” — a title given to him by his rival Kossuth. He founded the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, built the Chain Bridge connecting Buda and Pest, and modernized Hungarian agriculture, transport, and industry. He spent the last years of his life in a sanatorium, driven to breakdown by the failure of the 1848 revolution and the Habsburg reprisals that followed. Placing his face on a 10,000,000 Pengő note — a denomination that would have been incomprehensible to him — is one of the more quietly tragic design decisions in the entire series.

A Posthumous Ode to the Pengő, by World Money Store

So, 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”