Hungarian pengő — worst hyperinflation on record
The Hungarian pengő reached its peak hyperinflation in July 1946, with monthly inflation of 4.19 × 10^16 percent — meaning prices doubled every 15 hours. By the end, the government was issuing a 100 quintillion (10^20) pengő note, the largest denomination ever printed anywhere. A special parallel currency, the adópengő ('tax pengő'), was introduced to allow government accounting to continue amid the chaos. The pengő was replaced by the forint on August 1, 1946, at a conversion rate of 4 × 10^29 pengő to 1 forint — the largest monetary exchange ratio ever enacted.
The Hungarian episode was driven by Soviet reparations demands and a deliberate policy of monetary expansion under the transitional coalition government. The forint stabilization succeeded partly because of tight Soviet oversight (ironically) and partly because Hungary's trade relations were immediately constrained by the emerging Cold War, limiting the external pressure on the new currency.
05 · Hyperinflation Century
With gold constraints effectively removed after World War I, the 20th century produced the most spectacular currency collapses in recorded history. Weimar Germany, Hungary, Greece, China, Yugoslavia, and dozens of lesser-known cases all reached true hyperinflation — monthly inflation above 50 percent, continuing for months or years. The Hungarian pengő collapse of 1946 remains the worst on record, with prices doubling every 15 hours at its peak. The era ended with Nixon's closure of the gold window in August 1971, which made every major currency in the world fully fiat for the first time in history.
Read the full era →