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1 Drachme Privileged Bank of Epirus and Thessaly
| Issuer | Privileged Bank of Epirus and Thessaly |
|---|---|
| Year | 1885 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Vignette of Athena at left, shown in profile wearing a crested helmet, rendered in fine intaglio engraving. The denomination ΔΡΑΧΜΗ ΜΙΑ appears in large letters within a guilloche oval at centre, with the bank name ΠΡΟΝΟΜΙΟΥΧΟΣ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ ΗΠΕΙΡΟΘΕΣΣΑΛΙΑΣ inscribed across the top. Serial number, date, and manuscript signatures appear in the lower portion, with the printer's imprint Bradbury Wilkinson & Co Ltd London along the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The Royal Arms of Greece at centre, rendered as a circular heraldic vignette with two standing figures as supporters flanking a shield charged with a white cross, surmounted by a royal crown, all within an elaborate guilloche border with interlocking geometric lathe-work. The numeral 1 appears in ornamental cartouches at left and right within the overall design. The printer's imprint BRADBURY WILKINSON & COMP.Y LONDON appears along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
The Privileged Bank of Epirus and Thessaly was chartered in 1882, following the territorial adjustments that brought Thessaly and part of Epirus into the Greek state after the Congress of Berlin. The bank held a regional monopoly on note issue for those newly incorporated provinces rather than operating as a national institution — a deliberately limited mandate that reflected ongoing uncertainty about the economic integration of the new territories.
Bradbury Wilkinson printed the series in London, as they did for numerous colonial and quasi-colonial banking clients throughout this period. The bank's note-issuing privilege was eventually absorbed into the broader Greek banking framework, making surviving low-denomination examples from 1885 genuinely scarce.