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1 000 000 000 Drachmai Agrinion

Issuer Bank of Greece, Agrinion Branch
Year 1944
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Composition Paper
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Obverse lettering ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ
ΥΠΟΚΑΤΑΣΤΗΜΑ ΑΓΡΙΝΙΟΥ
ΕΠΙΤΑΓΗ ΔΡΑΧ. 1.000.000.000
Εν Αγρινίω τη 6 Οκτωβρίου 1944
ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑΝ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ
ΕΝΑ ΔΙΣΕΚΑΤΟΜΜΥΡΙΟΝ
ΗΜΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΙΔΙΩΝ
Γ. ΦΑΝΟΣ
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Signature(s) Γ. Φάνος (Branch Director, Agrinion)
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Greece's hyperinflation of 1944 was among the worst the twentieth century produced. By October of that year, the price level had risen roughly 163 billion times compared to 1941 — a figure that makes even a billion-drachmai note feel almost mundane within the sequence. The Bank of Greece's regional branch issues, including this Agrinion example, were emergency responses to a denomination spiral that the Athens printings could not keep pace with.

Branch-signed issues like this one are distinguished by the locally applied signature of the branch director rather than central bank officials. Γ. Φάνος signed for Agrinion. These provincial variants are scarcer than their Athens-issued counterparts and frequently confused with them in generalist collections.