When Yugoslavia fell apart, Serbia was the only of the former partner republics that kept the dinar as its currency. The united, semi-communist dream of Yugoslavia had crumbled, and the dinar had crumbled with it.

Because of years of bad economic policy and later international sanctions imposed on Serbia for its role in the Balkan Wars, Serbia experienced some of the worst hyperinflation in history in the late 80s and early 90s. There was hardly anything produced in the country and with sanctions on import and export, prices went crazy. The Central Bank in Yugoslavia started pumping out new paper money without backing its value or controlling it in any way. More and more zeroes were added to the new notes.

So Serbians were billionaires for a while – but very poor ones at that. There was a war raging at just about hundred miles from the capital of Belgrade, and the people who still had jobs or made money on the black market would wake up in the morning with enough money to buy a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk. But by the afternoon, that money would be worth even less. A pack of cigarettes had one price in the morning but in the evening, you would pay the same price for a single cigarette.