1 Drachma Italian occupation

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.