The Hungarian population has approximately Ft 15 billion (€55 million) worth of expired banknotes which can still be exchanged at face value in banks, penzcentrum.hu reports. According to the Hungarian National Bank, people are not in any rush to exchange their old banknotes for new ones, and as it averages out, each Hungarian is sitting on Ft 1500 worth of old money.
Of the bills recently taken out of circulation, the old Ft 1000 note without the metallic hologram strip withdrawn three years ago totals the largest amount at Ft 3.9 billion (€14.4 million), while surprisingly in second place is the even older green Ft 1000 note that featured composer Béla Bartók, worth Ft 3.3 billion (€12.2 million). There is still Ft 3.24 billion (€12 million) in Hungarian households of the Ft 200 note withdrawn last November.
All of these bills can be exchanged until at least 2019 at an office of the National Bank, as well as some commercial banks and post offices.