The 10 Coins That Disappear Over Time: The Phenomenon of the World's Cheapest Money in 2025

When you hold a stack of bills that looks like it came out of a board game, when you need millions of units to buy something simple, when the cheapest money in the world becomes more rule than exception in certain regions – that is not a sign of creative economy. It’s a sign of economic collapse.

2025 marked a turning point for various global currencies. While the Brazilian real suffered its worst performance of the year in 2024 with a decline of 21.52%, and today trades around R$ 5.44 per dollar (September/2025 data), there are economies where the term “devalued money” is not rhetorical exaggeration – it’s everyday reality. The difference? Here we complain about devaluations of 20%. There, people live with drops of 90%, 95%, or even more.

Why Do Currencies Crash? The Triggers of Monetary Fragility

Before exploring the ten worst, it’s important to understand that the cheapest money in the world does not emerge by chance. There is always a chaos architecture behind it.

Inflation that devours generations: In Brazil, when inflation exceeds 5% annually, concern already arises. In certain nations, prices almost double every 30 days. This phenomenon called hyperinflation not only reduces purchasing power – it erodes trust. Savings evaporate. Salaries turn into colored paper even before being spent.

Permanent political collapse: Coups, internal wars, governments changing annually without legitimacy. When there is no institutional security, no one invests, no one saves in local currency. The predictable result: the currency becomes useless even for domestic transactions.

International economic isolation: When economic sanctions close a country’s doors, cutting off its access to the global financial system, its currency loses any utility in international transactions. Without the ability to do foreign trade, the local economy shrinks and the currency crashes.

Critical foreign exchange reserves: A Central Bank without enough dollars is like a person without a bank balance. There’s no possible defense. The currency plummets because there’s no market force supporting it.

Silent capital flight: When even citizens prefer to store dollars informally – under mattresses, hidden in suitcases, in foreign accounts – you witness the moment when even the population has given up on the national currency.

It is in this context that the ten currencies forming the ranking of the cheapest money in the world emerge.

The 10 Most Extreme Cases of Devaluation in 2025

1. Lebanese Pound (LBP) – The Undisputed Champion

Quote: 1 million LBP = R$ 61.00

The Lebanese Pound is the gold medal in fragility. Officially, there should be 1,507.5 pounds per dollar. Officially. In the streets of Beirut, you need more than 90,000 pounds to get one dollar. Banks limit withdrawals. Stores refuse local currency. Uber drivers ask exclusively for US dollars.

Since the 2020 crisis, the Lebanese economy has not recovered even 10% of the lost ground. Inflation erodes wages, unemployment soars, and the currency becomes an almost anthropological object – a testimony of a state that has ceased to function.

2. Iranian Rial (IRR) – Sanctions Turned into Paper

Quote: 1 Brazilian real = 7,751.94 rials

American sanctions have turned the Iranian rial into an experiment in parallel economy. With just R$ 100, you become “a millionaire” in rials. Ironically, this does not go unnoticed by Iranians themselves, who have migrated massively to cryptocurrencies as a store of value.

Bitcoin and Ethereum have become more reliable than the national currency issued by the Central Bank. An entire generation of young Iranians has learned that decentralized technology is safer than financial institutions controlled by collapsing governments.

3. Vietnamese Dong (VND) – Historic Weakness in Growing Economy

Quote: Approximately 25,000 VND per dollar

The Vietnamese case is peculiar. The country has a robust growing economy, but the dong remains historically weak – a deliberate monetary policy choice that turned into a trap. Tourists love it: with US$ 50, you live like a millionaire for days. Vietnamese suffer: imports become expensive, international purchasing power disappears.

4. Laotian Kip (LAK) – Dependency That Weakens

Quote: About 21,000 LAK per dollar

Laos lives at an economic crossroads: small market, essential imports, structural inflation. The kip is so weak that at the border with Thailand, merchants simply refuse – they prefer Thai baht. It’s when a currency loses not only legitimacy but also within its own country.

5. Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) – Giant with a Dwarf Currency

Quote: Approximately 15,500 IDR per dollar

Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Still, its currency has never gained strength. Since 1998, the rupiah remains among the most devalued globally. Classic paradox: economic power does not translate into a strong currency. For Brazilian tourists, Bali remains a price paradise: R$ 200 daily are enough to live comfortably.

6. Uzbek Sum (UZS) – Legacy of Economic Isolation

Quote: About 12,800 UZS per dollar

Uzbekistan has implemented significant economic reforms in recent years, but the sum still carries decades of a closed economy. The country tries to attract investments, policies change, but the currency remains weak – a living memory of a past that has not yet been overcome.

7. Guinean Franc (GNF) – Mineral Wealth, Poor Currency

Quote: Approximately 8,600 GNF per dollar

Guinea has gold, bauxite, abundant natural resources. It should be prosperous. Instead, chronic political instability and corruption prevent resources from transforming into economic strength. Result: a weak currency that does not reflect the country’s true potential.

8. Paraguayan Guarani (PYG) – Neighbor with a Timid Currency

Quote: About 7.42 PYG per real

Paraguay maintains a relatively stable economy, but its guarani is traditionally weak. For Brazilians, this means Ciudad del Este continues to be the El Dorado of international shopping – prices that challenge competition.

9. Malagasy Ariary (MGA) – Poverty Reflected in Currency

Quote: About 4,500 MGA per dollar

Madagascar is one of the poorest nations on the planet. Its ariary reflects this reality accurately. Imports cost a fortune. The population has virtually zero international purchasing power. It’s when a weak currency is not an accident but a symptom of an economy that cannot feed itself.

10. Burundian Franc (BIF) – Currency That Requires Bags

Quote: About 550.06 BIF per R$ 1.00

The ranking ends with a currency so devalued that large transactions literally require bags of physical money. Burundi’s chronic political instability has crystallized in the national currency – each note is a testament to a state that lost control.

What Do These Currencies Reveal About the World

The cheapest money in the world is not just a financial curiosity. It’s a diagnosis of political, institutional, and economic health. Each extreme devaluation documents systemic failures: corruption, instability, lack of trust, isolation.

For Brazilian investors, the lessons are clear:

First: fragile economies with destroyed currencies pose immense risks. Arbitrage opportunities do exist, yes. But the truth is that these nations face deep crises that do not resolve quickly.

Second: tourism in destinations with devalued currencies can be financially advantageous. Your real, your dollar, or your euro buys much more. It’s a matter of strategically taking advantage of exchange rate differentials.

Third: following how currencies crash offers practical graduate-level macroeconomics. You witness in real time how inflation, corruption, and instability destroy the purchasing power of ordinary people.

Fourth: there is a greater lesson in this observation. Governance, institutional stability, and trust are not economist’s abstractions. They are the foundation on which any currency is sustained. Without them, not even all the mineral wealth in the world can keep a currency strong.

Want to keep following how money turns into power or fragility around the globe? These transformations offer valuable clues for those who want to understand not only the cheapest currencies but also which economies truly prosper and where genuine opportunities exist.