Banknote Blog

Explainer · Venezuela · Oil & Currency The 2026 U.S.-Venezuela Oil Deal, Explained: 65 Billion Barrels and the Currency Question On August 28, 2026, President Trump announced what he called the biggest oil deal in world history: a U.S. partnership covering 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan reserves. Venezuela's money has always risen and fallen with its oil, so here is what was announced, how the country got here, and why collectors of the bolívar are watching closely. …

Explainer · Inflation · Inflation Day What Is the CPI? The Monthly Number That Moves Markets (and Sets Our Discounts) Once a month, at 8:30 in the morning Eastern time, the U.S. government publishes a single percentage. Bond desks reprice trillions of dollars within minutes. Your Social Security check, your tax brackets, and, at Planet Banknote, your discount code all trace back to it. Here is what the Consumer Price Index measures, how to read it, and why banknote collectors watc …

Collector's Guide · Argentina · Hyperinflation History Argentina's Austral: The Currency That Lasted Six Years and Lost Five Zeros In 1985 Argentina launched a brand-new currency to end inflation for good. By 1989 shoppers were sprinting to beat price stickers that changed during a single trip to the market. This is the story of the austral, the note it ended with, and why bank bricks of it now sit in collections around the world. Quick answer: The austral was Argentina's currenc …

Numismatic Reference · Hungary · Hyperinflation Hungary 1946: The Worst Hyperinflation in History, and the Banknote With 20 Zeros Zimbabwe gets the fame. Weimar gets the textbooks. But the most extreme monetary collapse ever recorded happened in Hungary in the summer of 1946 — and it produced the highest-denomination banknote ever issued. Quick answer: The worst hyperinflation in history occurred in Hungary between August 1945 and July 1946. At its peak, monthly inflation r …

Collector's Guide · Hyperinflation · August 2026 What Does 3.4% Inflation Look Like Next to Real Hyperinflation? The August 2026 CPI print came in at 3.4% — enough to make headlines. The banknotes in a hyperinflation collection come from economies where that was a good hour. Here's the honest scale of the difference. Quick answer: At 3.4% annual inflation, prices take roughly 20 years and 9 months to double. During Hungary's 1946 hyperinflation — the worst ever record …

Numismatic Reference  ·  German Hyperinflation  ·  Updated August 2026 Weimar Notgeld: Germany's Emergency Money, 1914–1923 When the German mark collapsed, thousands of towns, companies, and even churches printed their own money — on paper, silk, leather, and wood. Notgeld is the most artistically rich body of paper money ever created, and one of the most affordable ways to collect a world-historical event. Here's the full story, era by era. Quick …

Numismatic Reference  ·  Zimbabwe Hyperinflation  ·  Updated August 2026 Zimbabwe Agro Cheques Explained: The Billion-Dollar "Harvest Money" of 2008 Before the famous 100 Trillion note, there were the Agro Cheques — four billion-denominated bearer instruments the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe rushed out in mid-2008 as hyperinflation outran the printing press. Here's what they are, why they aren't technically banknotes, and why the complete P-61 through P-64 se …

Collector's Guide  ·  Show Coverage  ·  Updated August 2026 ANA World's Fair of Money 2026: A Collector's Guide to the Pittsburgh Show The biggest money show in America lands at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center August 25–29. Here's everything a banknote collector needs to know before walking the bourse floor — dates, hours, admission, headline exhibits, and the paper-money stops worth planning your day around. Quick answer: The 2026 ANA Wor …

Numismatic Reference · Iran · August 2026 Iran Is Removing Four Zeros from the Rial: A Collector’s Guide to the Redenomination Every rial banknote in circulation today belongs to a series with a published end date. When a country deletes zeros, the notes that carried them become artifacts of a closed chapter — it happened with Hungary’s pengő, Venezuela’s bolívar, and Zimbabwe’s dollar, and it is happening now in slow motion in Iran. Quick ans …

Collector’s Guide · United States · August 2026 A President’s Signature on the Dollar: What the 2026 Currency Change Means for Collectors For more than a century, two signatures have anchored every US note. In 2026, for the first time, a sitting president’s is being added. Whatever you think of the politics, the numismatics are simple: signature changes are how US currency collecting keeps score, and this is the biggest one in living memory. Quick answer: On Mar …