Catalog
1 Drachma Italian occupation
| Issuer | Italian Military Administration, Ionian Islands |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941 |
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| Currency | Ionian drachma (1941-1943) |
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| Obverse description | Plain white note with no pictorial vignette, relying entirely on typographic composition set within a fine guilloche border. The central text panel carries the bilingual inscription in Italian and Greek, with the denomination rendered in large Roman and Greek lettering. A manuscript signature of the Treasurer (IL TESORIERE) appears at the lower centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BIGLIETTO A CORSO LEGALE PER LE ISOLE JONIE ΧΑΡΤΟΝΟΜΙΣΜΑ ΕΧΟΝ ΝΟΜΙΜΟΝ ΚΥΚΛΟΦΟΡΙΑΝ ΕΝ ΤΑΙΣ ΙΟΝΙΟΙΣ ΝΗΣΟΙΣ UNA DRACMA ΜΙΑ ΔΡΑΧΜΗ IL TESORIERE |
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| Comments |
Issued under the Italian Military Administration established after the April–June 1941 Axis invasion of Greece, this note was part of a parallel currency system imposed on the Ionian Islands — Corfu, Lefkada, Kefalonia, Ithaca, Zakynthos, and Kythira — which Italy administered separately from the German and Bulgarian occupation zones on the mainland. The Ionian Islands held particular significance for Rome: Mussolini regarded them as historically Italian territory, and the occupation had an annexationist character that distinguished it from purely military governance elsewhere in Greece.
Printed at the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome, the note's tiny dimensions reflect a low-denomination scrip function — local small change rather than a circulating banknote in any meaningful sense. The drachma's exchange rate against the lira was fixed by occupying authorities at an artificial level that facilitated systematic economic extraction from the islands.