# Is that half a million in your pocket or ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 25, 2005, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976 "2005-04-25T04:40:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/1 "2005-04-25T04:40:35Z")
… or are you just happy to see me? Maybe both. I currently have a Vietnamese 500,000 dong bill in my wallet. That’s a lot of dong to be packing! I think it’s also the biggest number I’ve ever seen printed on currency. If I had two, I’d be a millionaire! Of course, it’s only worth about $35, but it’s still a nice feeling. Has anyone seen a bigger bill? Otherwise, go ahead and make your “clever” dong jokes, and I’ll check back later. I think I’ve heard them all, but one never knows for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/2 "2005-04-25T05:54:45Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#): > > Of course, it’s only worth about $35, but it’s still a nice feeling. How much will that buy in Vietnam? Is it considered to be a lot of money? ---
**Author:** ![6\_6\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e0b2c6/32.png) [@6\_6\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6_6_6)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/3 "2005-04-25T07:23:20Z")
Before the Turks devalued recently, a Turkish million lire note was worth less than a dollar. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/4 "2005-04-25T10:27:49Z")
Is the dong a hard currency? ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/5 "2005-04-25T10:39:06Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#): > > That’s a lot of dong to be packing! I laughed. I couldn’t help it. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/6 "2005-04-25T13:45:32Z")
> [@Harimad-sol](#): > > I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Me too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/7 "2005-04-25T14:08:58Z")
I have a 5,000,000 Inti note from Peru. The inti was replaced (you can see why) but they didn’t replace all the printed notes all at once so many larger denomination notes were still in circulation when I visited there. I can’t remember the exchange but I think the new notes are Solee’s, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/8 "2005-04-25T15:54:15Z")
I hope you don’t have problems with the dong inflating at random times. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Watermelon\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/22d042/32.png) [@Watermelon\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Watermelon_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/9 "2005-04-25T15:59:31Z")
Before we erased 6 zeros at the beginning of 2005, our biggest currency was 20,000,000 Lira. Worth about 15 USD. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/10 "2005-04-25T17:14:41Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I have a 5,000,000 Inti note from Peru. > > The inti was replaced (you can see why) but they didn’t replace all the printed notes all at once so many larger denomination notes were still in circulation when I visited there. I can’t remember the exchange but I think the new notes are Solee’s, perhaps? I think that Peru changes their currency every 5 years or so. I have some Peruvian bills that are worth a fraction of a penny each. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/11 "2005-04-26T00:48:38Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Is the dong a hard currency? > [@Clothahump](#): > > I hope you don’t have problems with the dong inflating at random times. 😃 Ah, good ones! 🙂 As to whether it’s a lot of money, it sort of depends what you’re buying. There are places where I could shoot the whole wad (sorry) on a single meal, or I could go to sidewalk stand and get about 150 bowls of beef noodle soup. 20,000,000 lira! Well, Viet Nam has a long way to go to match that, and now that inflation is under control, I doubt they’ll ever get there. Oh, well. I’m happy with my huge dong note. ---
**Author:** ![NoPretentiousCodename](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/82dd89/32.png) [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/12 "2005-04-26T02:15:14Z")
There’s a bar bet in all of this, I just know it! ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/13 "2005-04-26T11:17:35Z")
**dong Firms In Face Of Speculation** ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/14 "2005-04-26T12:48:09Z")
I seem to recall that post WWI Germany ended up printing billion Mark notes. Not simply one billion Mark, but several billion, as in multiples of ten billion. ---
**Author:** ![NoPretentiousCodename](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/82dd89/32.png) [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/15 "2005-04-26T18:59:21Z")
I heard the Vietnamese government tried to save money by printing currency only in light blue ink. At the same time there was a mistake in the printing process causing some currency to be released eighteen inches wide and with two fronts (the side with the portrait) and no back. When they ran out of blue ink, they found a particular brand of jelly made a passible substitue. Just one example of a [double headed, 18" ice blue jelly dong](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=266235). ---
**Author:** ![BelZarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BelZarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BelZarak)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/16 "2005-04-26T19:30:09Z")
I was wondering how long it would take before the infamous 18"IBJD made an appearance in this thread. I’m actually surprised it took 15 posts. -Belz ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/17 "2005-04-26T20:13:28Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > I seem to recall that post WWI Germany ended up printing billion Mark notes. Not simply one billion Mark, but several billion, as in multiples of ten billion. Actually, if you ever get into postage stamps, you see a lot of German inflation-era stamps among piles of random foreign stamps. Not currency, exactly, but it’s kind of cool to see something like [this (scroll down)](http://ingrimayne.saintjoe.edu/econ/EconomicCatastrophe/HyperInflation.html) – a series of German postage stamps from 1921-1923, following the inflationary trend. The first is 5 pfennigs, the last is 50 BILLION marks. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/18 "2005-04-26T21:04:29Z")
12 decades of increase\*. Wow, the last time I saw that kind of start up rate\*\* was looking at a nuclear reactor going critical. Well, I guess it’s appropriate - the hyperinflation of Post-WWI Germany is as good an example of economic melt-down as anyone could ask for. - decade - a power of ten increase in something - in nuclear power, it is a used in reference to the neutron population. In a shut down reactor the neutron population is on the order of 100 neutrons per second. At power generation, the same reactor is going to be running with about 10[sup]17[/sup] neutrons per second. (I may have the time frame off - it might be neutrons per minute. Either way it’s a pretty impressive jump.) \*\* start up rate - a measure of how quickly the neutron population is growing (or shrinking). Usually this is kept to around 1 decade per minute. Getting up to 10 decades per minute is a baaaaaad thing. ---
**Author:** ![EarthStone777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@EarthStone777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EarthStone777)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/19 "2005-04-26T21:26:46Z")
I’ve got you all beat… I have a five hundred billion dinara note from Jugoslavija from 1993 issued in Beograd. That’s 500,000,000,000 Dinara. I bought it off E-bay in 1998 for $10. The seller claimed it was the largest denomination note ever printed in any currency. (I don’t know if that’s true or not) Of course it’s now worth… nothing. They changed their currency sometime before I bought it. (I was aware of that at the time I purchased it.) I have used it in a LARP where I play a time traveler from the future. I pull it out of my pocket and toss it on the bar to buy a drink. Then when I notice what it is, I quickly pick it up and say “Oh right, inflation hasn’t gotten that high, yet…” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976/20 "2005-04-27T05:17:28Z")
> [@EarthStone777](#): > > I’ve got you all beat… > > I have a five hundred billion dinara note from Jugoslavija from 1993 issued in Beograd. That’s 500,000,000,000 Dinara. Well, I don’t have one, but Hungary once issued a [100 quintillion pengo banknote](http://tomchao.com/hb12.html), and printed (but did not release into circulation) a 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that’s one sextillion) pengo note. Of course, those are the American versions of the numbers – since many countries (including Hungary and Germany) consider 1,000,000,000 to be a _milliard_, and a thousand times that to be a _trillion_, the two bills I’ve mentioned would be valued at “merely” 100 quadrillion pengo and 1 quintillion pengo, respectively. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-half-a-million-in-your-pocket-or/300976.md?page=2)