HUNGARY: The Peng

Some years ago Edward Kasner, a whimsical Columbia University mathematician, coined the word "googol" as the name of a very large number: the number i followed by 100 zeros (TIME, Feb. 28, 1938). Dr. Kasner made it clear that the googol, though useful in the recondite realm of probability mathematics, would never be needed in mundane affairs.

Last week the Hungarian inflation came far closer to needing evaluation by googol than any other inflation in history. The pengo was quoted at 500.000,000,000,000,000,000 to the dollar. At that point the Finance Ministry withdrew it from circulation, replaced it by something called the "index pengo," at 6,500,000 to the dollar. If the ordinary pengo had merely added a zero a day for another 80 days, it would have passed the googol.