I spent some time in Argentina 1983-1984, right after the democratic government had been restored. The inflation was so bad that they had just converted their currency from Pesos to Pesos Argentinos by scratching the last 4 or 5 zeros (can't remember exactly). I recall one time we went out for a walk, and I had a fat roll of Pesos bills in my pocket. We stopped somewhere to get some ice cream, and I pulled up the money and started counting. Come to find out, even though I had my pocket full of Pesos bills, there wasn't enough to buy one single cone of ice cream. Fortunately, I had a couple of US dollars and the ice cream guy was more than happy to take that, instead of the worthless Pesos.
It was so bad that the stores were totally crowded on payday. Everybody wanted to spend their money as soon as they got it, to make sure it didn't turn into worthless pieces of paper. I even sent million Pesos bills (IIRC worth less than $1 at the time) to my friends at home, telling them not to spend it all in one place.
