What was the face value of Zimbabwe's biggest banknote, issued in 2009?

Answer

Hyperinflation made prices rise so fast that the note bought little.

Context

The 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note (a 1 followed by 14 zeros) was the largest denomination the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe produced, issued in January 2009 during a hyperinflation that ranks among the worst on record. The Smithsonian holds an example and describes it in an exhibition on hyperinflation. The note is dated 2008, but was released in early 2009, which causes some confusion.

The collapse was driven by heavy government deficit spending financed by printing money, falling farm and industrial output, and a loss of public confidence. Estimates of the peak inflation rate differ widely because official statistics stopped being reliable, and some analysts put the monthly peak in late 2008 at figures in the billions of percent. Its real value was tiny when issued, probably only tens of US dollars at most, and it fell quickly.

Zimbabwe's response was to abandon its own currency. In 2009 the government allowed foreign currencies, mainly the US dollar and South African rand, to be used for transactions, a step economists call dollarization, and the Zimbabwean dollar was effectively retired. Today the unissued notes are sold to collectors. A caveat is that the world's highest-ever face value might be disputed: Hungary's 1946 hyperinflation produced a larger denomination in pengő, though it was never issued.