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1/2 Drachma - Otto
| Issuer | Greece |
|---|---|
| Year | 1833-1847 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1/2 Drachma |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Bare-headed effigy of the young King Othon facing right, rendered in high relief with finely detailed naturalistic curls. The portrait, engraved by Carl Friedrich Voigt, is set against a smooth field and occupies the majority of the flan. The circular Greek legend surrounds the bust, reading from lower left to upper right, with the engraver's initials K.Φ. incused below the truncation. A fine toothed border frames the entire design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ΟΘΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ Κ.Φ. (Translation: OTHON KING OF GREECE Κ.Φ.) |
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| Additional information |
Otto of Wittelsbach arrived in Greece in 1833 as a seventeen-year-old Bavarian prince installed by the protecting powers — Britain, France, and Russia — to rule a country that had barely concluded its war of independence. His early coinage, including this fractional silver, was designed and in part physically produced in Munich before Greek minting infrastructure existed. The phoenix monetary system it belonged to was replaced by the drachma system in 1833, with Otto's issues forming the first standardized coinage of the modern Greek state.
The .900 fine silver specification followed Bavarian rather than any indigenous Greek standard — a small but telling detail about who was really setting policy in Athens during the regency years.