Editing Hyperinflation (section)

===Currency===
[[File:HUP 100MB 1946 obverse.jpg|thumb|100 million trillion pengő (100 quintillion pengő) banknote from the period of postwar hyperinflation in Hungary in 1946, the largest denomination banknote ever officially issued for circulation]]
[[File:HUP 1000MB 1946 obverse.jpg|thumb|1 {{Not a typo|milliard}} b.-pengő (1 sextillion pengő) banknote, printed but never issued]]
In countries experiencing hyperinflation, the [[central bank]] often prints money in larger and larger denominations as the smaller denomination notes become worthless. This can result in the production of unusually large denominations of [[banknote]]s, including those denominated in amounts of 1,000,000,000 (10{{sup|9}}, 1 billion) or more.
* By late 1923, the [[Weimar Republic]] of Germany was issuing two-trillion mark banknotes and postage stamps with a face value of fifty billion marks. The highest value banknote issued by the Weimar government's Reichsbank had a face value of 100 trillion marks (10{{sup|14}}; 100,000,000,000,000; 100 million million).<ref>1 billion in the German long scale = 1000 milliard = 1 trillion US scale.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sammler.com/coins/inflation.htm |title=Values of the most important German Banknotes of the Inflation Period from 1920 – 1923 |access-date=3 May 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040413214534/http://sammler.com/COINS/inflation.htm |archive-date=13 April 2004 |url-status=live }}</ref> At the height of the inflation, one US dollar was worth 4 trillion German marks. One of the firms printing these notes submitted an invoice for the work to the Reichsbank for 32,776,899,763,734,490,417.05 (3.28 × 10{{sup|19}}, roughly 33 [[quintillion]]) marks.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Penniless Billionaires |first=Max |last=Shapiro |publisher=New York Times Book Co. |year=1980 |page=203 |isbn=0-8129-0923-2 |quote=Of course, one must not forget the 5 pfennig!}}</ref>
* The largest denomination banknote ever officially issued for circulation was in 1946 by the [[Hungarian National Bank]] for the amount of 100 quintillion [[pengő]] (10{{sup|20}}; 100,000,000,000,000,000,000; 100 million million million). (A banknote worth 10 times as much, 10{{sup|21}} (1 [[sextillion]]) pengő, was printed but not issued.) The banknotes did not show the numbers in full: "hundred million b.-pengő" ("hundred million trillion pengő") and "one milliard b.-pengő" were spelled out instead. This makes the 100,000,000,000,000 [[Zimbabwean dollar]] banknotes the note with the greatest number of zeros shown.
* The Post-World War II hyperinflation of Hungary held the record for the most extreme monthly inflation rate ever – 41.9 quadrillion percent ({{val|4.19|e=16}}%; 41,900,000,000,000,000%) for July 1946, amounting to prices doubling every 15.3 hours. By comparison, on 14 November 2008, Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate was estimated to be 89.7 [[sextillion]] (10{{sup|21}}) percent.<ref name="cato">{{cite web |url=http://www.cato.org/zimbabwe |title=New Hyperinflation Index (HHIZ) Puts Zimbabwe Inflation at 89.7 sextillion percent |last=Hanke |first=Steve H. |publisher=[[Cato Institute]] |date=17 November 2008 |access-date=17 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081113221554/http://www.cato.org/zimbabwe |archive-date=13 November 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref> The highest monthly inflation rate of that period was 79.6 billion percent ({{val|7.96|e=10}}%; 79,600,000,000%), and a doubling time of 24.7 hours.

One way to avoid the use of large numbers is by declaring a new unit of currency. (As an example, instead of 10,000,000,000 dollars, a central bank might set 1 new dollar = 1,000,000,000 old dollars, so the new note would read "10 new dollars".) One example of this is Turkey's revaluation of the lira on 1 January 2005, when the old [[Turkish lira]] (TRL) was converted to the [[new Turkish lira]] (TRY) at a rate of 1,000,000 old to 1 new lira. While this does not lessen the actual value of a currency, it is called [[redenomination]] or [[revaluation]] and also occasionally happens in countries with lower inflation rates. During hyperinflation, currency inflation happens so quickly that bills reach large numbers before revaluation.

Governments may try to disguise the true rate of inflation through a variety of techniques. If these actions do not address the root causes of inflation they may undermine trust in the currency, causing further increases in inflation. [[Price controls]] will generally result in shortages and hoarding and extremely high demand for the controlled goods,{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} causing disruptions of [[supply chain]]s. Products available to consumers may diminish or disappear as businesses no longer find it economic to continue producing and/or distributing such goods at the legal prices, further exacerbating the shortages.

There are also issues with computerized money-handling systems. In Zimbabwe, during the hyperinflation of the Zimbabwe dollar, many [[automated teller machines]] and payment card machines struggled with [[arithmetic overflow]] errors as customers required many billions and trillions of dollars at one time.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/31/zimbabwe |location=London |work=The Guardian |first=Mark |last=Tran |title=Zimbabwe knocks 10 zeros off currency amid world's highest inflation |date=31 July 2008 |access-date=17 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202084334/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/31/zimbabwe |archive-date=2 February 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>