Obverse: Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
Reverse: National Library of Serbia
Yugoslavia’s central bank introduced a 500 billion dinar bank note on December 23, 1993, marking another milestone in the country’s descent into economic chaos and poverty.
The brightly colored bill was worth approximately $6 on the morning of December 23rd when used to pay the thousands of retirees who lined up outside post offices across the country to collect their monthly pensions. But by the time most of them had hurried to the markets it was worth only $5. By evening its value had dropped to less than $3.
The 500 billion dinar notes appeared only a week after the first 50 billion dinar bill and 10 days after the 5 billion dinar denominations. The release coincided with the announcement of government plans to trim nine zeroes from the currency on Jan. 1.
This Genuine 1993 banknote was issued by Yugoslavia during one of the worst hyperinflations the world has ever seen: 5 quadrillion (15 zeros) percent inflation from October 1, 1993 to January 24, 1994 (prices doubled every 16 hours). To keep up with the rapidly increasing numbers of zeros needed on their money, the government kept issuing new currencies. This banknote still held the world's record for the most zeros ever printed on a banknote until Zimbabwe introduced the 10 trillion dollar banknote in January 2009.
The official end of the hyperinflation came on January 24, 1994, when the "novi dinar" was issued at an exchange rate of 1.3 million to 1 - the result of tying the Yugoslav currency to the stable German mark in a one to one ratio. The total tally of hyperinflation between 1990 and 1994: 1.3 octillion (10) pre-1990 Dinara were worth the same as one of the "novi dinar".
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